Wondering if this is normal

[jens2angels]

I just started working for a fairly rural EMS company. I also work for a larger ambulance company part time that has a very high call volume in the city, and also has several other sub stations that are rural that do 24 hour shifts. The larger company takes to heart the need for EMS workers to get rest and do everything possible to ensure that after 10 at night that they do not have to go out and sit point and lose sleep unless absolutely necessary. Of course they still are required to run e calls, but they rotate transfers between stations so one station isn't constantly getting hit. Some nights you may go with no sleep, but for the most part you can get a few at least.

Now I work for this rural company and they run maybe 400 e calls a year and survive solely on transfers. They have no organized dispatching and if one car has to go out on a call or transfer in the middle of the night, then everyone in the whole company (approx 6 stations) has to get up and move. One night I had to drive a 50 mile transfer on 1 hour sleep in the last 20 and was so tired I was seeing double. It scared me. Now they have started a new territory and the previous company had 2 cars in the city during the day and then went down to 1 at night. They did this successfully for over 3 years with no problems. Now that we have taken over, they have 2 on all the time and if one goes out on a transfer, then they are still moving the other cars from miles away so they still have 2 cars down there.

They are flat out running down their employees to the point of exhaustion and it's not safe for the worker, not the patient they are transporting. The president of the company has been told about our exhaustion, his answer, I pay you to work. I have told him that perhaps it would be safer to hire 12 hours transfer cars so that they can rotate, but it falls on deaf ears.

One night they even woke me up and had me drive an hour to go to a wheelchair call and then after I came back, I got sent on another one. They split up cars and shuffle things around so much, it's maddening.

My question is, is this normal at other places? it's one thing to be woke up for e calls, you get a certain amount of adrenaline going and it naturally wakes you up some, but this disorganized dispatching and misuse of resources it really becoming maddening. I cannot afford to quit, as I a family to take care of and am waiting for a full time spot to open at the larger one I have worked at for awhile.

One supervisor said they have had 3 accidents where employees have fallen asleep at the wheel, thank god they had no patient with them.

Any feedback you have would be appreciated.

[AZCEP]

Start documenting everything about this situation. Even the smallest of details. Log your shift times, the number of times you are rotated to another station, the number of "unsafe" transports you are required to do, everything.

At some point you will have to decide if this is where you want to continue working, but your safety has to come before anything else, including the paycheck.

[paramedicmike]

Agree with AZCEP.

I gotta say, too, that while you may not think you can afford to quit due to family obligations, your family can't afford to be without a parent. Your family needing you to come home alive and in one piece at the end of any shift you work far outweighs your need to maintain your employment at this place.

Good luck!

-be safe

[streethealer535]

I Would have to agree with these guys... it seems to me no matter how much they "force" you to work if you get in a accident and Kill someone you and your family are the ones who have to deal with the consequences.

There is more to life then EMS and as a family man you should understand that. It might be better to work at your local fast food joint (for the same pay) then to take the chance on being injured, maimed or killed.

Just my thoughts... 8)

JJ

[spenac]

Only 400 calls a year and they have 6 stations? Really doubt with 400 calls that you will have very many sleepless nights.

I'm just guessing but you probably meant more. Since they don't seem to care I say change jobs.

[Scaramedic]

Yeah the math is kind of screwy 400 runs divided by 6 stations works out to a call every 5 days per station. I would think the problem would be too much sleep.

[jens2angels]

They do 400 e calls, and approximately 2000 transfers. They make all their money on transfers and expect us to treat transfers as priority one calls. If we are about to make a 3 hour trip, we are not even supposed to stop and get a drink for the trip, even if it is BLS. They did have 4 stations until recently when they just added 2 more. Guess I should have clarified that better, so now maybe they might get 6-700 e calls a year, but more transfers added to the list too because of the hospital in the new territory.

I think I will start making a journal of all the movements and work on another job asap.

[Freaknuggetz_chick]

i work rural and get sent to standby quite often. now, for the most part, there are places for us to sleep when sent on standby (although not always, but the units each have 2 places to sleep in the back, eh!!). our dispatchers try to move as few of us as possible, but at the same time they also need to ensure that the couties are covered. on the other hand, if we've been run off our feet, they will let us stay home for 8 hours, even if that means calling other crews for standby when we need sleep. its rare, but thankfully available.

[jens2angels]

See they don't even have a dispatch at night. The senior medic that is on for the night has to move everyone, which I disagree with too, they need to worry about taking calls and being a medic, not a dispatcher.

Where they have us sit post there are no sleeping facilities (which doesn't bother me as much as no bathroom, I actually find a stretcher fairly good on my back actually, lol) and no bathrooms near by or anything. One is literally in the middle of a blueberry field where we park in a drive that the owner plows out for us.

[Just Plain Ruff]

is there any way you can look for another job? Eventually the odds are gonna come around and bite you in the rear end and you are going to fall asleep and crash, Killing or injuring yourself and your patient.

You should have pulled yourself off the road the night you were seeing double. You were probably about 5 minutes from falling asleep.

Think of your family and yourself and start the process of searching for another job.

The other thing you can do is to present a unified presence to management telling them that you have had it. Do it in a respectful manner and be prepared with some examples of what you would change and how. If you go to management with just complaints and no options or alternatives you will get nowhere.

PM Me if you want some help with this.