toyskater86
Forum Lieutenant
- 205
- 48
- 28
Anyone here have experience working as a paramedic at McCormick in Los Angeles? Are they dual medic units? Pay?
I really don't think that having an ALS crew on the ambulance really effects their decision. If they send it with the ambulance, barring some sort of MCI, they consider it sending it BLS even though the ambulance crew has a medic or two. I've been on ALS shifts where our medic didn't agree with how the county fire medic sent a call BLS and as soon as they left made base contact and made it an ALS call. Theoretically if the call is designated BLS and its not, the fire medic can get in trouble regardless of whether or not the ambulance crew is ALS. If the call is ALS, they have to ride it in unless they hand it off. I've never seen CoFD hand an ALS patient to an ambulance ALS crew. They always ride in.I wonder how often on those borderline "should this be ALS or not?" calls the CoFD medics on the squad say "oh hey, they'll have a medic anyway, let's let MC take it and we'll clear"
It's 50/50 ego and job security. Most of the big players that are private could easily wipe the floor with what fire cost to do ems in the county. LA city board members have long discussed going private vs fire ems. What prevents all of this is the good old IAFF. Fire is in complete control and as well has alot to do with why LA county has such a small scope of practice. Example: LA city charges a fee of $2k-$3k 911 response and ALS transport. Private provider LA based does the same transport at around $1k-$1500kI never got why fire department paramedics would ride in with a dual medic unit that is fully staffed and equipped, especially if it is a non critical ALS patient. Gotta love taking 2 ALS units out of service for one patient. It must be an ego thing, since I can't imagine there is much liability seeing as most of the country paramedic first response units hand off to paramedic transport units all the time. However, what if the ALS McCormick unit is first on scene? Do they get to act as paramedics until the fire department paragods get there? I hope they can at least act as paramedic in that situation. The system down there makes no sense. I am so glad I left LA county years ago.
I love working where fire is BLS. We all play nicely together and egos do not get in the way.
It's 50/50 ego and job security. Most of the big players that are private could easily wipe the floor with what fire cost to do ems in the county. LA city board members have long discussed going private vs fire ems. What prevents all of this is the good old IAFF. Fire is in complete control and as well has alot to do with why LA county has such a small scope of practice. Example: LA city charges a fee of $2k-$3k 911 response and ALS transport. Private provider LA based does the same transport at around $1k-$1500k
LA City Fire charges: $1500 for a bls run
Private Provider does it for $800
You cut fires ems grip and fire loses money. They than lose a justification for a large budget and large staffing model.
You ever wonder why there has never been a ALS IFT protocol?
Because that doesnt involve fire.
You than have case studys, somebody at city hall sees this and sais holy cow, same license yet doing more and good quality. It than pushes for a further justification for doing away with fire ems.
Most fireman only go on the box in this county for the 15% pay increase and to climb the ladder no pun intended.
What gives a black eye on the private side is the abundance of small companies in the county that have not the greatest track records with the management teams. Scandals etc
This provides fuel for fire to say we do it better and this can't happen with the FD in control.
So to summ it up in several factors:
1)Politics
2)large budget justifications
3)egos
I kid you not, I once had a fire medic tell me private medics can not pronounce in LA county..........
Remember LAFD and other FDs in the county had single function employees.
A fire fighter was a fire fighter
A paramedic a paramedic
Now its Fire fighter Paramedic
Fire fighter emt.
Those people we're chased out of employment by fellow crew members and most if not all are now retired.
Ems is just that, a money bag for fire to dip into.
Wow you guys get ran and paid so little! Why do people keep puting themselves through that kind of suffering?McCormick has moved things around a little bit in regards in the ALS rigs. There are 3 ALS rigs in McCormick's system everyday. One out of Inglewood, Hawthorne and Redondo Beach. The two in Inglewood and Hawthorne respond to LACoFD calls in the area and they act just like the regular BLS rigs in McCormick's system. Some ALS IFT's from Centinela, Harbor-UCLA or RR-UCLA. All of McCormick's ALS units are fully stocked ALS rigs. The third ALS rig is stationed in Redondo Beach has now been turned into a Torrance Fire first up dedicated rig. So that unit mostly responds to Torrance Fire calls. The other BLS unit at the Redondo station responds to the LACoFD calls and Redondo calls that come in. The medics at McCormick are treated just like the EMT's same orientation, same hiring process except your FTO time is on one of the ALS rigs with a medic FTO. All ALS rigs are dual medic and the pay is the same as EMT's. $10 during training, $11 on 12 hour shifts, $9.50 on 24's, $9 if you elect to receive medical benefits from them. Also McCormick enacted a policy that if you don't get a call at night you will not get paid for the night. Pay increases are non-existent. McCormick also just removed call bonuses, they were a big money maker for the busy units in Hawthorne and Inglewood. In all of my time working there I never heard one of the ALS rigs being used as ALS first in for any of the backup cities.
If that's not a justification for a union I don't know what is. At least I would contact the NAEMT to do some reform work in California when it comes to labor. The company's in LA county have the Ambulance Association where all the owners and reps get together once a month. What's talked about who knows and even if the public is allowed to attend.