Alpha One Ambulance
- Thread starter Twitch559
- Start date
Angel
Paramedic
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the pay is crappy. EMT is like...$9.00, i think you start off on a wheel chair ambulance then can move up to BLS and/or ALS CCT. A lot of SNF "scene" calls and discharges....youre better off applying to Protransport, at least they offer a sign on bonus and starting pay is 11.xx, they have their own issues though...and lots of them.
PM for more info
PM for more info
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All I know about Alpha One is that one of the folks involved in that business used to be involved in running First Responder in Sacramento... and that Alpha One is relatively new. I haven't been in the field in quite a while, so I don't know the reputation that they have yet, and I haven't heard anything about any of the ambulance crews or their employers from the hospital side. I've been a volunteer and have done my nursing school clinicals at some area hospitals and aside from something like "transport's here" I haven't heard anything good or bad about them from any of the floors I've been on.
I know they are some what of a new company, The owner is the same founder as First responder. I don't expect a high pay being i have no history in ems and i cant work for a bigger more established company yet. My main concerns revolve around how they treat their employees, and are they flaky. My current plan is to work up here till i am eligible to work at Hall Ambulance in Bakersfield.
Ewok Jerky
PA-C
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Didn't a lot of First Responderers move over the Alpha1 when they opened up shop? I know there was some drama there but I didn't work for either so who knows. First Responder was also getting unionized around the same time. But I've moved out the area since then so who knows.
gotbeerz001
Forum Deputy Chief
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They have an orange and blue logo.
The only question you need to know is:
"Are they gonna hire me?"
If you're applying for them, that means that it will be a step up from not having a job. Once you're in, figure out if it works for you or whether you want to move on. It's easier to get a job in EMS when you have one.
The only question you need to know is:
"Are they gonna hire me?"
If you're applying for them, that means that it will be a step up from not having a job. Once you're in, figure out if it works for you or whether you want to move on. It's easier to get a job in EMS when you have one.
Very true. I am currently working at an office and im trying to find the first ambulance company that will hire me (because of my age). If i don't have one by summer i am going back south, so im not sure if the first step with them is a step in the right direction.
ghost02
CA Flight Paramedic
- 158
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Time out. What makes you think you are not eligible for Hall?
I'm only 19
ghost02
CA Flight Paramedic
- 158
- 70
- 28
That'll do it. Just so you know our age limit was lowered to 20.
ya, thank you. My plans are to move back and apply as soon as i turn 20... For some reason Hall is like "The One" that everyone wants to go to
SandpitMedic
Crowd pleaser
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Brace yourself, this is going to be a long one... Back to my EMS roots; I worked for roughly two years at FREMS during the drama.
My first EMT gig was at Wirst Responder-Sac Ops. Working for Tom Arjil... The man, the myth, the legend, the millionaire. We used to have a running joke that as EMTs our title actually stood for Earning Money for Tom.
Once, I transported a lady from the health department who was eager to be transported home, until I walked in and she saw the words "First Responder" on my shirt... Haha. Her smile turned sour real quick. I remember her asking if I worked for Tom and obviously I had nothing to hide. She made small talk and then while transporting her she asked if I liked Tom... In my head, I thought: “Tom, who gave me my first job? The charismatic businessman who seemed to always remember my name? That Tom? Tom is awesome.” So, I replied in the affirmative, something to the tune of, "He is okay, like any other manager..."
She reached into her purse on her lap, as I scribbled that old paper chart as we bounced down the road, and pulled out a business card. While I can't remember her title, she was some big-wig political person from the EMS branch of the County Health Department. She proceeded to tell me not to be fooled by Tom, that he was a snake in the grass, hungry for money and nothing else. She told me he was a cheat and a liar, a circumventer of the law, and that I should be wary about working for him for too long....
Ooooooooh.... Dramatic!
I just remember thinking, "Tom is so nice though"... So naive I was. In the end, that unknown woman's words rang true for myself and many of my colleagues. Anyways, back to the beginning:
I believe I started at $9.12/hr on a 12 hour night car with time & 1/2 after 8 hours. Therefore 10.64 per hour if I worked 12 hours; there was no night differential. Not too shabby. (My previous job had paid $15/hr as a security guard.) The rigs and equipment were mostly old junk... It was a BLS/ALS company, doing dialysis runs, "gurney van transports," 5150 Txrs, and the typical hospital to hospital shuffle. (I’ll talk about the ALS side later) I remember sitting in my first day of orientation watching people walking around in their navy blue t-shirts that said EMT in big red letters on the back... Oh man... I couldn't wait! I was so ecstatic to start saving lives and kickin' butt... And then they put up the Medicare/Medi-Cal slides on the PowerPoint and started talking about transferring patients to lower acuity facilities and hospital to hospital transports...
... And I thought.... "What the whole wide world is (bleeping) going on here?!?!? MEDICARE??? I don't give two ***** about Medicare? What the hell is Medicare anyway?!"
And then as I sat there quietly stirring in my head and registering all this I thought, "Hospital to SNF?! What in the world is a SNF???!!!!..... Screw that mumbo jumbo! I'm here to save lives and put everyone who sneezes on an oxygen mask!"
Tom came in, and had his business philosophy up on the screen... His five goal posts... I don't recall them all. But being honest was his number one thing. If you set a rig on fire, and told him the truth about it, you wouldn't be fired. On the flip side, if you took a pen home, and lied about it- you were dead to him.
He also mentioned patient care, and not letting complacency get ahold of you, or your chart writing. After all, he couldn't get paid if your charts sucked. –There was a whole lot of coaching on how to write charts, such as words that must be included in the narrative. Lines such as "non-ambulatory; requiring max assist from bed to gurney via draw sheet; unable to self-monitor O2 due to lack of manual dexterity; unable to stand/pivot." Etc, etc, etc. Basically, key words every chart needed, even if the patient could walk or turn on their own oxygen. This was in order to be reimbursed; even if they could walk, the policy was to move them from bed-bed. At the time I didn't know it, but that is called fraud.
But at the time, in my head, I thought it sounded legit, and if they required an ambulance then you're gonna get an ambulance! “Darn right I'll turn your O2 on for you! Besides, you don't know how many liters you need; I went to school for 3 months to do this!"
Complete F!N!G!... 100%, guns ablazin', just happy to be here.
What an idiot. After about a week working IFT I realized that this whole thing was a huge scam and that less than 5% of these folks truly needed an EMT and an ambulance. Whatever, who was I to make waves? I was a 20 year old EMT, lusting after that fire service job, just like everyone else. So I had to do my time, I had to pay my rent, and I had go with the flow.
In short order, I realized that I was surrounded by a wealth of knowledge, and had so much information at my fingertips with access to nurses and other healthcare folks. (Not doctors though, I was very intimidated by the doctors as a young pup in the game.) Reading these peoples' charts actually taught me a lot too. I learned a whole lot. I touched humans, performed assessments, listened to lungs, was thrust into emergency scenes, was unconvinced at meal time, learned long hours of shift work, got comfortable with patient care and the fundamentals of this industry. It was like... Little League, teaching the foundations. It was my gateway to medicine.
I enjoyed it, aside from making pennies in a high cost-of-living city and having rigs that were duct-taped together, and being under-valued and over-ran... It was a great experience. It taught me about the industry and about myself. Even though I shuffled grandma around, the public didn't know that- to the public eye I was in a position of authority and public trust. As an EMT (medic, fireman, whatever) I could walk in to your residence and tell you what to do, and you'd do it, most of the time. That's because you called me to help you.
Day-to-day, I didn't even think about Tom or management... I just did my job the best I could and gained experience. We had fun, played pranks, made friends and networked.
After 6 months of IFT, you could take a one day class and upgrade your position within the company--- to ALS EMT. It was a highly coveted spot that only a few were invited to apply for. The Holy Grail. You could be upgraded and assigned to a 12 hour ALS unit or a 24 hour ALS station (a station was generally a crappy one or two bedroom apartment in the cheapest ghetto location they could find.) Ooooooh man! So exciting. As an ALS unit (EMT/Paramedic) you could now be assigned to run "scene calls" at local SNFs that had contracted with First Responder…
And then you could also continue to run BLS and gurney van transports, then whine about it because this was the major leagues baby!!! ---Hot Call---Grandma in the dementia ward is a little more confused than normal and won't eat breakfast?? OMG! The RN on site has no clue what to do?! Medic 504, it's morphin’ time!!! Lights and sirens- ENGAGED!!!!
Pft… Weaksauce.
I remember we had a Paramedic who wore the Batman style get up belt with all types of stuff he’d never use in 911, let alone responding to SNFs. He used to go into full on trauma activation mode if some poor old lady fell out of her chair while reaching for a new stamper in the bingo room. Bilateral 16G IVs, full C-spine, complete neuro check, EKG, BGL… the whole nine yards. I was a newb, but I knew that he was the amateur. On an aside, common sense will go a long way in this job.
All jokes aside, we did run a few true emergencies because we were called for everything, even Codes. That was due to the facilities not wanting to call 911 because they didn't want the dings in their reports to their governing/licensing body. (Every time 911 gets called they get a mark; too many marks=gov’t shut you down- or at least make you change your name and business license.) So, they call Tom or Medic or NorCal, their boys will do the same thing as 911.
Anyways... When Tom wanted to start an ambulance company he needed some help. So he went up North and wheeled-and-dealed with an established company: First Responder, Chico Ops - an IFT/911 contract agency. To get his company off the ground cheaply, Tom struck a deal with Byron (FR Chico CEO) so that Tom's company would have the same name and therefore Tom could buy Byron's hand me downs for under market value. He also got his degree in how to make money from insurance companies and Medicare/Medi-Cal. So now you had two companies, with two separate tax IDs: First Responder EMS Chico, and First Responder EMS Sacramento.
A baby was born, but there was another catch to the deal... Tom's stake in his baby was only 49%. His co-owner Byron owned 51% of the company, but let Tom be the shot caller. Years went by and this made Tom rich; scamming insurance companies and paying low wages and buying the cheapest equipment and uniforms, stations, etc. yielded Tom record profits. They even failed to pay folks double time if they worked over 12 hours on a scheduled 12 hour shift, violating the California Labor Code. If you were good at hustling and making Tom money he would leave you alone; make too many waves or ask questions and you were out! You could always engage the smooth talking folks in Tom’s upper management circle, that included a guy named John. These guys were a gang of smooth talking hustlers who had been rumored to have been fired from other ambulance companies, including Tom himself, for things like sexual harassment and using drugs on duty. Or there was Brent, the shop guy who could duct-tape anything. I wasn’t there during those times, and can’t speak to the accuracy of that, only that I had heard the exact story from multiple long-timers.
My first EMT gig was at Wirst Responder-Sac Ops. Working for Tom Arjil... The man, the myth, the legend, the millionaire. We used to have a running joke that as EMTs our title actually stood for Earning Money for Tom.
Once, I transported a lady from the health department who was eager to be transported home, until I walked in and she saw the words "First Responder" on my shirt... Haha. Her smile turned sour real quick. I remember her asking if I worked for Tom and obviously I had nothing to hide. She made small talk and then while transporting her she asked if I liked Tom... In my head, I thought: “Tom, who gave me my first job? The charismatic businessman who seemed to always remember my name? That Tom? Tom is awesome.” So, I replied in the affirmative, something to the tune of, "He is okay, like any other manager..."
She reached into her purse on her lap, as I scribbled that old paper chart as we bounced down the road, and pulled out a business card. While I can't remember her title, she was some big-wig political person from the EMS branch of the County Health Department. She proceeded to tell me not to be fooled by Tom, that he was a snake in the grass, hungry for money and nothing else. She told me he was a cheat and a liar, a circumventer of the law, and that I should be wary about working for him for too long....
Ooooooooh.... Dramatic!
I just remember thinking, "Tom is so nice though"... So naive I was. In the end, that unknown woman's words rang true for myself and many of my colleagues. Anyways, back to the beginning:
I believe I started at $9.12/hr on a 12 hour night car with time & 1/2 after 8 hours. Therefore 10.64 per hour if I worked 12 hours; there was no night differential. Not too shabby. (My previous job had paid $15/hr as a security guard.) The rigs and equipment were mostly old junk... It was a BLS/ALS company, doing dialysis runs, "gurney van transports," 5150 Txrs, and the typical hospital to hospital shuffle. (I’ll talk about the ALS side later) I remember sitting in my first day of orientation watching people walking around in their navy blue t-shirts that said EMT in big red letters on the back... Oh man... I couldn't wait! I was so ecstatic to start saving lives and kickin' butt... And then they put up the Medicare/Medi-Cal slides on the PowerPoint and started talking about transferring patients to lower acuity facilities and hospital to hospital transports...
... And I thought.... "What the whole wide world is (bleeping) going on here?!?!? MEDICARE??? I don't give two ***** about Medicare? What the hell is Medicare anyway?!"
And then as I sat there quietly stirring in my head and registering all this I thought, "Hospital to SNF?! What in the world is a SNF???!!!!..... Screw that mumbo jumbo! I'm here to save lives and put everyone who sneezes on an oxygen mask!"
Tom came in, and had his business philosophy up on the screen... His five goal posts... I don't recall them all. But being honest was his number one thing. If you set a rig on fire, and told him the truth about it, you wouldn't be fired. On the flip side, if you took a pen home, and lied about it- you were dead to him.
He also mentioned patient care, and not letting complacency get ahold of you, or your chart writing. After all, he couldn't get paid if your charts sucked. –There was a whole lot of coaching on how to write charts, such as words that must be included in the narrative. Lines such as "non-ambulatory; requiring max assist from bed to gurney via draw sheet; unable to self-monitor O2 due to lack of manual dexterity; unable to stand/pivot." Etc, etc, etc. Basically, key words every chart needed, even if the patient could walk or turn on their own oxygen. This was in order to be reimbursed; even if they could walk, the policy was to move them from bed-bed. At the time I didn't know it, but that is called fraud.
But at the time, in my head, I thought it sounded legit, and if they required an ambulance then you're gonna get an ambulance! “Darn right I'll turn your O2 on for you! Besides, you don't know how many liters you need; I went to school for 3 months to do this!"
Complete F!N!G!... 100%, guns ablazin', just happy to be here.
What an idiot. After about a week working IFT I realized that this whole thing was a huge scam and that less than 5% of these folks truly needed an EMT and an ambulance. Whatever, who was I to make waves? I was a 20 year old EMT, lusting after that fire service job, just like everyone else. So I had to do my time, I had to pay my rent, and I had go with the flow.
In short order, I realized that I was surrounded by a wealth of knowledge, and had so much information at my fingertips with access to nurses and other healthcare folks. (Not doctors though, I was very intimidated by the doctors as a young pup in the game.) Reading these peoples' charts actually taught me a lot too. I learned a whole lot. I touched humans, performed assessments, listened to lungs, was thrust into emergency scenes, was unconvinced at meal time, learned long hours of shift work, got comfortable with patient care and the fundamentals of this industry. It was like... Little League, teaching the foundations. It was my gateway to medicine.
I enjoyed it, aside from making pennies in a high cost-of-living city and having rigs that were duct-taped together, and being under-valued and over-ran... It was a great experience. It taught me about the industry and about myself. Even though I shuffled grandma around, the public didn't know that- to the public eye I was in a position of authority and public trust. As an EMT (medic, fireman, whatever) I could walk in to your residence and tell you what to do, and you'd do it, most of the time. That's because you called me to help you.
Day-to-day, I didn't even think about Tom or management... I just did my job the best I could and gained experience. We had fun, played pranks, made friends and networked.
After 6 months of IFT, you could take a one day class and upgrade your position within the company--- to ALS EMT. It was a highly coveted spot that only a few were invited to apply for. The Holy Grail. You could be upgraded and assigned to a 12 hour ALS unit or a 24 hour ALS station (a station was generally a crappy one or two bedroom apartment in the cheapest ghetto location they could find.) Ooooooh man! So exciting. As an ALS unit (EMT/Paramedic) you could now be assigned to run "scene calls" at local SNFs that had contracted with First Responder…
And then you could also continue to run BLS and gurney van transports, then whine about it because this was the major leagues baby!!! ---Hot Call---Grandma in the dementia ward is a little more confused than normal and won't eat breakfast?? OMG! The RN on site has no clue what to do?! Medic 504, it's morphin’ time!!! Lights and sirens- ENGAGED!!!!Pft… Weaksauce.
I remember we had a Paramedic who wore the Batman style get up belt with all types of stuff he’d never use in 911, let alone responding to SNFs. He used to go into full on trauma activation mode if some poor old lady fell out of her chair while reaching for a new stamper in the bingo room. Bilateral 16G IVs, full C-spine, complete neuro check, EKG, BGL… the whole nine yards. I was a newb, but I knew that he was the amateur. On an aside, common sense will go a long way in this job.
All jokes aside, we did run a few true emergencies because we were called for everything, even Codes. That was due to the facilities not wanting to call 911 because they didn't want the dings in their reports to their governing/licensing body. (Every time 911 gets called they get a mark; too many marks=gov’t shut you down-
or at least make you change your name and business license.) So, they call Tom or Medic or NorCal, their boys will do the same thing as 911.Anyways... When Tom wanted to start an ambulance company he needed some help. So he went up North and wheeled-and-dealed with an established company: First Responder, Chico Ops - an IFT/911 contract agency. To get his company off the ground cheaply, Tom struck a deal with Byron (FR Chico CEO) so that Tom's company would have the same name and therefore Tom could buy Byron's hand me downs for under market value. He also got his degree in how to make money from insurance companies and Medicare/Medi-Cal. So now you had two companies, with two separate tax IDs: First Responder EMS Chico, and First Responder EMS Sacramento.
A baby was born, but there was another catch to the deal... Tom's stake in his baby was only 49%. His co-owner Byron owned 51% of the company, but let Tom be the shot caller. Years went by and this made Tom rich; scamming insurance companies and paying low wages and buying the cheapest equipment and uniforms, stations, etc. yielded Tom record profits. They even failed to pay folks double time if they worked over 12 hours on a scheduled 12 hour shift, violating the California Labor Code. If you were good at hustling and making Tom money he would leave you alone; make too many waves or ask questions and you were out! You could always engage the smooth talking folks in Tom’s upper management circle, that included a guy named John. These guys were a gang of smooth talking hustlers who had been rumored to have been fired from other ambulance companies, including Tom himself, for things like sexual harassment and using drugs on duty. Or there was Brent, the shop guy who could duct-tape anything. I wasn’t there during those times, and can’t speak to the accuracy of that, only that I had heard the exact story from multiple long-timers.
SandpitMedic
Crowd pleaser
- 2,309
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READ FIRST PART ABOVE FIRST
The problem I had with all of these people, who on the surface seemed genuine was that they didn’t care about us, the employees. There were a few HR folks and middle-managers who were good people and actually cared, but they were always coming and going, no one was able to hold on to their job who tried to cut into Tom’s money making way of business. Overall, they would look you dead in the face and tell you that the company wasn’t profitable and that you should be helping the company in every way that you could. I mean, you could walk into Tom’s office, piping adamant about getting a 50 cent raise to help feed your kids or pay for their school books or whatever, and you would walk out of that office smiling and having taken a 50 cent pay cut, thinking that you just saved the company from bankruptcy and saved everyone’s job for them. The guy should have been a politician. While that didn’t happen to me personally, it is just a measure of how they operated, and boy they were good at it. They didn’t care you hadn’t had a raise in years; they didn’t car the wheels were falling off of the rigs and the exhaust fumes leaked into the patient area; they didn’t care that there were bugs and mold in the stations… They cared about running it as cheaply as they could with absolute bare minimum overhead. They were so cheap that they required you turning in your uniform pants upon resignation/termination… Pants that you had worn for one, two, three years… So that they could sell them back to the manufacturer for credit on new pants.
After years of successfully turning profits, there was a sudden rift in 2010. The Sac-town company voted to go union to Tom’s dismay, and the old 51% owner Byron came down from the wilderness to take back what was his! Tom held meetings and spoke to us all and made us all feel warm and special for making his millions, and how we were a family, and he told us about big, bad Byron and how they were swooping in on Tom’s success. I asked Tom how he felt about this one day in his (new) office, he said “never again will own less than 51% of anything.” A lesson learned for Tom, and a lesson observed by me. Byron slowly swooped in and took the reins at a snail’s pace before he axed Tom completely. It was a little awkward around the office for a time while that was going down. We didn’t know if we were next… or if the stories about Byron being big and bad were true.
Chico swooped in and nothing really changed; there were a few policy changes like any other that comes with new management. The bosses were fine, but no one made any more money and we kept on running our butts off. Call volume dropped a little because Tom and his folks had a lot of contacts within his customer base who he had persuaded to no longer call Byron’s First Responder. I left in early 2011 to greener pastures and to the South. But before I had left Tom had opened up a mechanic shop with Brent called Fleet Authority. Fleet Authority had a bread and butter operation working on Byron’s ambulances and other ambulances as well. They also specialized in doing work on people’s POVs and would purposely break stuff on them so to get maximum reimbursement from the warranty for new parts after replacing the damaged item with cheap used parts. It was just business as usual… make that profit at any expense.
When I left Tom was just starting up Alpha One Ambulance Medical Services. He had built this baby from the ground up, and those who had been under Tom’s spell rushed to his company, including many of the field Sups, one who recently passed away, and many of the field employees. Last I heard, Brent and John are still with Tom too, as is the only guy that I ever really thought had an honest bone, Peter from South Africa – good guy. I still know a few folks who work at both FR and Alpha One and it all just seems to be business as usual. Not many have said anything much has changed. Alpha One does the same thing First Responder used to do, and it is ran in the same fashion. Since starting up, Alpha One regained many of First Responder Sacramento’s old clients and he runs a busy outfit. Reportedly, times have slowed at FREMS since that happened.
I don’t really have any first-hand information on how things are now and I haven’t lived in NorCal since 2011. But I imagine it is still as it always was. While my story may seem a bit biased, I assure you it is only jaded at a minimum. Overall, ALL of these little mom & pop ambulance shops in California are the same. Some may be a little better and some may be worse. But as a whole, they are the same thing, run the same way to make the most profit.
Atop that, I think that it was a great experience to have been with First Responder during that time. It was my first gig… It would be a great first gig today still. As I said, I learned a great deal, from a lot of sources, including shady Tom himself. I don’t have any personal bias against Tom… He’s like every other squirrel out there trying to get his nut, albeit in an unfair manner but it’s an unfair and broken system. I think it’s wrong on an ethical level, and so I left his operation. But the lessons I learned (including things not to do and how no to be) were invaluable, and played a part in where I am today.
As a new EMT, so long as you have common sense, you should be able to figure out that any job is better than no job. You need experience in the ambulance and on your resume. There aren’t too many options out there, and each one will have its own set of pros & cons. It’s just generally better if you know what you’re getting into. These little companies should be steps up the ladder for you, not a long term place to work. Keep striving to do the right thing for your patients, and the right thing for yourself. IF you can secure employment at more reputable business I would advise that.
The problem I had with all of these people, who on the surface seemed genuine was that they didn’t care about us, the employees. There were a few HR folks and middle-managers who were good people and actually cared, but they were always coming and going, no one was able to hold on to their job who tried to cut into Tom’s money making way of business. Overall, they would look you dead in the face and tell you that the company wasn’t profitable and that you should be helping the company in every way that you could. I mean, you could walk into Tom’s office, piping adamant about getting a 50 cent raise to help feed your kids or pay for their school books or whatever, and you would walk out of that office smiling and having taken a 50 cent pay cut, thinking that you just saved the company from bankruptcy and saved everyone’s job for them. The guy should have been a politician. While that didn’t happen to me personally, it is just a measure of how they operated, and boy they were good at it. They didn’t care you hadn’t had a raise in years; they didn’t car the wheels were falling off of the rigs and the exhaust fumes leaked into the patient area; they didn’t care that there were bugs and mold in the stations… They cared about running it as cheaply as they could with absolute bare minimum overhead. They were so cheap that they required you turning in your uniform pants upon resignation/termination… Pants that you had worn for one, two, three years… So that they could sell them back to the manufacturer for credit on new pants.
After years of successfully turning profits, there was a sudden rift in 2010. The Sac-town company voted to go union to Tom’s dismay, and the old 51% owner Byron came down from the wilderness to take back what was his! Tom held meetings and spoke to us all and made us all feel warm and special for making his millions, and how we were a family, and he told us about big, bad Byron and how they were swooping in on Tom’s success. I asked Tom how he felt about this one day in his (new) office, he said “never again will own less than 51% of anything.” A lesson learned for Tom, and a lesson observed by me. Byron slowly swooped in and took the reins at a snail’s pace before he axed Tom completely. It was a little awkward around the office for a time while that was going down. We didn’t know if we were next… or if the stories about Byron being big and bad were true.
Chico swooped in and nothing really changed; there were a few policy changes like any other that comes with new management. The bosses were fine, but no one made any more money and we kept on running our butts off. Call volume dropped a little because Tom and his folks had a lot of contacts within his customer base who he had persuaded to no longer call Byron’s First Responder. I left in early 2011 to greener pastures and to the South. But before I had left Tom had opened up a mechanic shop with Brent called Fleet Authority. Fleet Authority had a bread and butter operation working on Byron’s ambulances and other ambulances as well. They also specialized in doing work on people’s POVs and would purposely break stuff on them so to get maximum reimbursement from the warranty for new parts after replacing the damaged item with cheap used parts. It was just business as usual… make that profit at any expense.
When I left Tom was just starting up Alpha One Ambulance Medical Services. He had built this baby from the ground up, and those who had been under Tom’s spell rushed to his company, including many of the field Sups, one who recently passed away, and many of the field employees. Last I heard, Brent and John are still with Tom too, as is the only guy that I ever really thought had an honest bone, Peter from South Africa – good guy. I still know a few folks who work at both FR and Alpha One and it all just seems to be business as usual. Not many have said anything much has changed. Alpha One does the same thing First Responder used to do, and it is ran in the same fashion. Since starting up, Alpha One regained many of First Responder Sacramento’s old clients and he runs a busy outfit. Reportedly, times have slowed at FREMS since that happened.
I don’t really have any first-hand information on how things are now and I haven’t lived in NorCal since 2011. But I imagine it is still as it always was. While my story may seem a bit biased, I assure you it is only jaded at a minimum. Overall, ALL of these little mom & pop ambulance shops in California are the same. Some may be a little better and some may be worse. But as a whole, they are the same thing, run the same way to make the most profit.
Atop that, I think that it was a great experience to have been with First Responder during that time. It was my first gig… It would be a great first gig today still. As I said, I learned a great deal, from a lot of sources, including shady Tom himself. I don’t have any personal bias against Tom… He’s like every other squirrel out there trying to get his nut, albeit in an unfair manner but it’s an unfair and broken system. I think it’s wrong on an ethical level, and so I left his operation. But the lessons I learned (including things not to do and how no to be) were invaluable, and played a part in where I am today.
As a new EMT, so long as you have common sense, you should be able to figure out that any job is better than no job. You need experience in the ambulance and on your resume. There aren’t too many options out there, and each one will have its own set of pros & cons. It’s just generally better if you know what you’re getting into. These little companies should be steps up the ladder for you, not a long term place to work. Keep striving to do the right thing for your patients, and the right thing for yourself. IF you can secure employment at more reputable business I would advise that.
SandpitMedic
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I didn't say that... I said two full posts more than that...
Sorry, I didn't see the second post. I understand what you are saying and thank you for letting me know what you have seen. If I put in my app with them then I will try to see what I can when I go in there. No matter what size of a company they all wanna make a profit but there is a limit.
SandpitMedic
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If you are a new EMT then go for it. Just know there are bigger and better things out there.
And know what you're walking into, so you don't have unreasonable expectations.
And know what you're walking into, so you don't have unreasonable expectations.
Mufasa556
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Great write up Sandpit. Every new EMT should read that. It's amazing how private EMS is all the same in different dimensions. We all work for the same company.
SandpitMedic
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Thanks. Indeed we do.
To this day... 95% unnecessary.