Richierich31

I worked for AMR in San Mateo County as an EMT for 2 years but while I was in medic school I was feeling the same thing you were. I felt like I was working for a big corporation that didn’t really care so much about patients as they did about their bottom line. Don’t give me wrong, the operation that I worked at was actually pretty awesome but I just could not see myself there for an entire career so I did a bunch of research on different third service agencies in the country. I just always wanted to work for a city or a county. Just randomly on a whim, we started doing some research about Pittsburgh (cost of living, climate, taxes ) And found out that Pittsburgh EMS does things that no other EMS service in the entire country does. It seems like every agency has their ups and downs, some people will bitch about anything but I have to say I don’t feel supported and valuable here. Right now it seems like we’re on the upside of the curve. So it’s getting a bit busier out there. Not like NYC or anything, we’re just waiting for it to hit. We have specialty resources on the street 24/7 That are enhancing our regular medic units. We are really aggressive PPE Protocols in place that make me feel safe on every call. We’ll see what this weekend brings.

Hey there, I’m at Pittsburgh paramedic and I lived in California my entire life until I moved here a year ago with my wife. I moved out of the Bay Area and moved to Pittsburgh... one of the big reasons was working for Pittsburgh EMS. I Work for AMR for a couple years and the Bay Area went to the Paramedic school in San Francisco. Have you started the process yet? Right now the process takes about 6 months. If you are in Pittsburgh right now I would try to get a medic job in between to get familiar with PAs protocols. Its a longer process but I love where I work. I’m excited to come to work and I work for the residents and visitors of a great American city. It’s a great place to work. There’s a lot of opportunities that we have. We do all rescue for the city. We have two heavy rescue trucks that are manned by two paramedics 24/7/365. We do River Rescue where we man a boat with 2 paramedic public safety divers 24/7/365. We have a motorcycle team that gives us an ALS response capability on Harleys. We have a proven Tactical team that is embedded with Pittsburgh Police SWAT. The process starts with the application, which you can get in now. There is a residence requirement so you have to live within the City of Pittsburgh by the time you get your final offer. There is a physical agility course that you have to complete. Details are in the job description. Then is the background check and polygraph. Yes, there is a polygraph exam done during your background check. After the poly is a psych interview with a doctor. After that is some more paperwork and then job offering and training. Let me know what else you need. It’s a great place to work. There are a lot of opportunities and we are paid really well.