I took my NREMT-B exam yesterday and got my confirmation email today that I passed the exam and received my EMT-B certificate. Now I was thinking about working for a private ambulance company, probably Superior, while I test for fire departments. Does anyone have any experiences with private ambulance companies? Good or bad? Thanks all.
FF
Private ambulances? Lol @ America
yeah screw us for attempting to save people we suck…
would you mind explaining how a private ambulance company works and the difference between those and ‘public’ ambulances?
[quote]HolyMacaroni wrote:
would you mind explaining how a private ambulance company works and the difference between those and ‘public’ ambulances?
[/quote]
Probably a lot more efficient if its private.
Government Ambulance Service - Operating separately from (although alongside) the fire and police service of the area, these ambulances are funded by local or national government. In some countries, these only tend to be found in big cities, whereas in countries such as Great Britain almost all emergency ambulances are part of a national health system.[64]
Fire or Police Linked Service - In countries such as the U.S., Japan, and France ambulances can be operated by the local fire or police service. This is particularly common in rural areas, where maintaining a separate service is not necessarily cost effective. In some cases this can lead to an illness or injury being attended by a vehicle other than an ambulance, such as a fire truck.
Volunteer Ambulance Service - Charities or non-profit companies operate ambulances, both in an emergency and patient transport function. This may be along similar lines to volunteer fire companies, providing the main service for an area, and either community or privately owned. They may be linked to a voluntary fire service, with volunteers providing both services. There are charities who focus on providing ambulances for the community, or for cover at private events (sports etc.). The Red Cross provides this service across the world on a volunteer basis.[65] (and in others as a Private Ambulance Service), as do other smaller organisations such as St John Ambulance[66] and the Order of Malta Ambulance Corps.[67] These volunteer ambulances may be seen providing support to the full time ambulance crews during times of emergency. In some cases the volunteer charity may employ paid members of staff alongside volunteers to operate a full time ambulance service, such in some parts of Australia and in Ireland.
Private Ambulance Service - Normal commercial companies with paid employees, but often on contract to the local or national government. Private companies may provide only the patient transport elements of ambulance care (i.e. non urgent), but in some places, they are contracted to provide emergency care, or to form a ‘second tier’ response, where they only respond to emergencies when all of the full-time emergency ambulance crews are busy. This may mean that a government or other service provide the ‘emergency’ cover, whilst a private firm may be charged with ‘minor injuries’ such as cuts, bruises or even helping the mobility impaired if they have for example fallen and just need help to get up again, but do not need treatment. This system has the benefit of keeping emergency crews available all the time for genuine emergencies. These organisations may also provide services known as ‘Stand-by’ cover at industrial sites or at special events .[68]
Combined Emergency Service - these are full service emergency service agencies, which may be found in places such as airports or large colleges and universities. Their key feature is that all personnel are trained not only in ambulance (EMT) care, but as a firefighter and a peace officer (police function). They may be found in smaller towns and cities, where size or budget does not warrant separate services. This multi-functionality allows to make the most of limited resource or budget, but having a single team respond to any emergency.
Hospital Based Service - Hospitals may provide their own ambulance service as a service to the community, or where ambulance care is unreliable or chargeable. Their use would be dependent on using the services of the providing hospital.
Charity Ambulance - This special type of ambulance is provided by a charity for the purpose of taking sick children or adults on trips or vacations away from hospitals, hospices or care homes where they are in long term care. Examples include the UK’s ‘Jumbulance’ project.[11]
Company Ambulance - Many large factories and other industrial centres, such as chemical plants, oil refineries, breweries and distilleries have ambulance services provided by employers as a means of protecting their interests and the welfare of their staff. These are often used as first response vehicles in the event of a fire or explosion.
copied from wiki
thanks bass!!!
you da man! woot woot!
[quote]HolyMacaroni wrote:
thanks bass!!!
you da man! woot woot![/quote]
Just doing my job, HM you’re the man
Long time lurker here but this post caught my eye. I actually work for Superior here in Michigan so I thought I might chime in.
Basically Superior does inter-facility transports and tons of dialysis runs. At the Basic level that means doing a lot of transports that amount to you being a very expensive taxi ride unless you’re working with a medic…but even then you’ll be driving and won’t get any useful pt. contact.
This isn’t all bad though because you’ll be able to build up your pt. assessment skills along with your ability to take vitals bouncing around in the back of the ambulance and get used to ambulance operations in a pretty low-stress environment (everyone once in awhile a pt. might crash or something coming from dialysis but it’s pretty rare).
You’ll probably post (meaing you sit in your ambulance so bring a book or something) all day if you aren’t on a 24 hour shift so you’ll get very close to whomever your partner will be.
Overall it was a good time, it was easy work and I had a great partner and posting isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. The corporation politics can be pretty obnoxious if you have a crappy station manager (which I did).
At the end of the day they’re looking to make a profit so they’ll run you into the ground with doing transports and even if they do have 911 contracts it might be pretty rare unless you’re working on a dedicated 911 truck. It all depends what you’re looking to get out of your time with Superior or any private service.
Personally, I wouldn’t make a career out of working for Superior, I enjoyed my time there but doing transports for the rest of my life is not my idea of EMS. Working 911 is way more fun and fulfilling. If you’re testing for the FD working for them would be an excellent way to bide your time while you test and wait for your results. If you have any questions or anything feel free to PM me.
It would be a good place to get some basic skills work since you are coming straight out of school.
bigk- thanks for that detailed response. Thats what I had heard about doing the transport stuff but I like your point of learning how to get vitals and such while on the move. And in no way do I plan on making a career out of this just looking for a full time job to hold me over until I get on a FD. But thanks again and if i have any questions you may receive a pm.
lanchefan- thanks for responding, youve been very helpful with answering my previous questions. I appreciate it.
FF