For the volly services: What kind of crew schedule??

[SSG G-man]

We usually go out with 2. Sometimes three if we have an observer. The occasional 4 if we have a non-EMT driver and a observer. The exception is if we have what sounds like a bad call and no extra drivers we will load up an ambulance and request a second ambulance for transport. (Example: Call went out as rollover, subjects ejected. We took non-EMT driver and 3 EMTs. the other unit dispatched with us does not always get out, so we cleared the station with the one ride we had!!)

[weasel 108]

Okay,let me get this straight. There are volley units that are dispatched and may not get out the door,so the next due dept. has to come and cover the 1st said dept. (What happens if the next due volley squad does not get out?)

Last time I made a comment about this, my back side :roll: was chewed off. But I'll say it again. Sounds like they are putting the public at risk ,just to be able to call themselves "volunteers".

[SSG G-man]

Well, could be they don't get out, or already on call that we did not hear, because they are second due into the county right across the bridge from their station. Not a whole lot different than a paid crew being on a call and second due has to respond. This usually only happens in the low call volume areas, or the very high volume area where they have a paid crew and usually at least 2 volunteer crews and sometimes are getting their 4th or 5th call.

[Guest Beegers]

In my area there is an orthodox jewish ambulance service.

[Janmarie3]

I do the schedules at my service and each shift is a 4 hour slot. We have our vollies put in 20 hours a week. So they sometimes either pick 4 hours a day for 5 days or they put in the whole day for their volley time. Depending on how they work it around their regular jobs. Some put in more hours and they get compensated for running over their volley time. The weekends each tech gets paid more to run it. The only problem we have is that no one wants to run the weekends. Which is understandable because that is their days off from their regular jobs. Sooooooo I get the weekends from Thursday 12am straight threw Sunday 4pm. But I get paid a salary to do this. I did have it where I had every other Saturday after 4pm off and every other Sunday off. But the EMT that was alternating with me just got fired so I'm stuck with it for awhile until someone steps in.

[sunfloweremt]

If you get paid to run then aren't you paid staff instead of a volunteer?

[Janmarie3]

If you get paid to run then aren't you paid staff instead of a volunteer?

I'm not a volunteer, I'm paid. The rest of the crew is volly. If I need them to run more then 20 hours a week (which is rare) then they get compensated. Like a thank you for putting in more time when we needed them.

[weasel 108]

SSG G-man. If your post after my last one was answering my question, I understand that your crew might already be on a call (you can't be in 2 places at once). What i'm saying is... If 911 call comes in and you have the "free for all" (no set crew) and they don't get out,and next do squad, same thing happens. How about volley crews that are not "inhouse" and come from home? from dispatch to the unit responding and getting on scene,how long has the patient been waiting?

Now i'm giving my opinion on this topic,but where I live ,I worked part time for a small town volley paramedic squad,where 90% of the EMTs were volleys. The medic was paid and volleys came from home( they have a very nice station with all the home comforts,some volleys choose not to stay inhouse). So when a call came in the medic was instructed to go responding and he/she would sit on the apron and wait for his/her crew or go to scene and crew would show up.I've already worked shifts,where the medic and I sat on apron and had to wait for the 1-2 volleys to come from home and ride with us (yes that's correct a 3 - 4 man crew).On a previous shift we were being informed by the "county dispatch" that we were going "2nd hit",anyway the medic and I agreed that we would just "go" and we did. When we got back we were welllll given a talking to :roll: (a spanking ) for not waiting for the entire crew.

Anyway if you have inhouse volley crews than good for you.

[SSG G-man]

Weasel-

We have some folks that "live-in" and there some that sleep in on a regular basis (I am there almost every Fri and Sat night from 2100-0600 or 0700). We do not have a set schedule during the day, but are usually covered by the folks who work shift work. Plus being in a semi-rural area with a low traffic volume some folks can get from home pretty quick. I have been in the bathroom and met people responding from home by the time I can get down stairs. IT is not a perfect system. We were supposed to be getting a paid daytime ALS crew, but another station in the county gave up EMS altogether, so the paid crew went there and wait for next hiring cycle. The only time we seem to have much trouble is 0500 to about 1100. I guess this is our transition with folks leaving for work and the night shift people coming home and getting settled in.

We have folks sign up for duty crew hours, that lets people know when there will be no one in house and we respond from home. Because of my "real job" and family I usually respond from home on weekends during the day. As our area population grows so does our call volume and the need for better coverage. So we are getting the paid folks in. When they come in, we will be able to take the call if it is a BLS call, and we can go with them if it is an ALS call. Be discussion now is if county is going to provide a rig or will they use ours.

I hope this makes things clear as mud.

[Janmarie3]

This is just a blurb about a city that I can pick up on my scanner and listen to their call. I roll my eye's everytime I hear them go out. This agency has no set schedule for any of thier crew. When a call comes in anyone who has their radio's on responds. Usually about 6-10 people responding on one call and they are all going POV. So all this time they are responding POV they are tieing up the radio with BS talk to each other. They all get onscene and then you hear, "Who's bringing the Ambulance?" Hehehe this goes on every single call they have.