Colorado EMS agencies

[testpilot]

Hello all,

I am looking for any opinions, heresay, positives, and negatives on any agencies in the state of Colorado. I am planning on relocating there and am just beginning to do some research. I am most interested at this point in the cities of Grand Junction and Fort Collins. Does anyone have any first hand experience with these services or have info on thier reputations. I have heard some decent things about Pridemark Ambulance in Boulder.....any comments on them?

Thanks again,
Greg

 

[zmedic]

Be aware of who you are talking to about Pridemark. I worked there for almost two years and they've gone quite a bit downhill from where they were five or six years ago. They lost the contract for Longmont, and I hear are losing the Louisville contract as well. Also if you are an EMT you had to work wheelchair transport before moving to 911. Not sure if this is still the case but watch out. I only had to do 2 months of w/c, but there were people who were on it for 6 months. They had a management change a few years ago, lost a lot of nationally known educators who had been with the company, like Twink Dalton and Thom ****. The average experience level of medics has dropped sharply since the change. I'm still in touch with friends who are with the company, they are hanging in but say it is nowhere near the amazing place it was to work 5 years ago. So if the people who are saying great things about it were out there awhile ago I'd take what they say with a grain of salt.

Boulder is a great place to live and running 911 there is a blast, but not sure that I'd go back to Pridemark knowing what they've become.

 

[testpilot]

Thats too bad...I hate to hear that. I will say however that it almost sounds like Pridemark is suffering from what most of the rest of the agencies all over the country are suffering from. Lack of experience and people just not wanting EMS as a career. Many are just using it as a stepping stone to other jobs in the medical field. I know the agency I work for here in NC is definately like what you have described.

Why were they losing contracts in Longmont and Louisville? Who took those contracts in those towns? How many agencies are up and down the eastern slope and who would you say has the best reputation as being aggressive, competent, and well equipped? Thanks for any other replies with info.

Greg

 

[TransportJockey]

Any word on the AMRs around Denver? I'm moving up there in Midmarch and was curious.

 

[zmedic]

AMR took Longmont, and my understanding was the Louisville fire was working on running their own EMS, but I'm not sure if this actually has happened. About 7 years ago there was a company called Boulder County Paramedics which ran Louisville and another town (maybe Cherryvale), and then Pridemark took over Louisville. One of the big things about losing longmont is that I think they're running less trucks now. When I was there we had 7 rigs on during the day to cover everything, I'd be surprised if they were running more than 4 now, so there may be less spots for getting onto 911.

I don't think Pridemark is a bad company, it's worth looking at. But when I started I felt that they were one of the best in the country, that you could have put a Pridemark crew up against FDNY, Medic 1, whoever and they'd hold their own.

I don't know what your training is, but many of the places on the front range are fire based, so Pridemark is one of the few sole EMS agencies. I think Weld EMS is another, though they are farther east and north. It also comes down to where you want to live, Boulder is a sweet town.

I'm sure you want to run EMS but I'd also take a look at working as an ER tech. Boulder Comunity Hospital, Longmont United, and some others use EMT/Medic ER techs. If you are an EMT you should get your IV cert and ECG cert, it's a separate class and the ERs and most of the ambulance services want you to have it if you are an EMT.

 

[testpilot]

Thanks a lot for all of the info. This is some really good stuff I never knew. I didn't realize the ER's in CO would hire a paramedic....Ill have to look into that a little more. As for Pridemark, I'll do some more looking into that as well cause ambulancing is really where my heart is...for some reason I just can't seem to get in to the Fire/Medic role...at least I'm a little resistant. Anyway, thanks again for your replies

Greg

 

[The Perkinator]

I am in an EMT-B class in Longmont and will be doing my clinicals with Pridemark in Boulder. From what I've heard about them it is an ok company to work for. I have only been in the class for 2 weeks so I haven't heard much, but I will try and find out some more info from my teachers and classmates and let you know what the word on the street is. I might even be able to get you an email for someone that has worked there recently.

 

[testpilot]

Perkinator,

That would be great. Thanks for the help and good luck with the class.

Greg

 

[firemedic_30ca]

Beware of pridemark. I wasn’t there long, but I was very under whelmed by their system, equipment and general morality. This is a company that stresses using everything on the pt, and making damn sure you bill them for it. They had me billing for something as stupid as using the phone to patch to the ER, all sorts of little nit picky crap id never seen anyone bill for. They have the use of a 12 lead being appropriate for people over 65 and encourage you to do it regardless of the complaint. Grandma sugar foot has toe pain, give her a 12 lead. Nearly everyone my FI saw was a “ALS transport,” mainly for billing purposes im sure. No one seemed very interested in what was best for the patient financially. As the manager of “clinical” importance told me several times, “if they call 911, they are going to the hospital.” Sufficed to say, I didn’t fit in with the crowd very well. I didn’t believe in religiously transporting everyone and it thought it was a bit “fire” of pridemark to say things like “well I really have no idea whats wrong with you, how about we take you in?” They have a very poor mapping system. The basically require that you memorize the streets rather then provide a map grid, or some sort of gps system. Call me spoiled if you want, but gps dispatching is a standard for any top echelon EMS system, and I think making people memorize all the streets instead of providing them with top notch mapping equipment is extremely cheap for a company running only 20 ambulances a day while bringing in 26 million a year. Anyway, it’s the story of all non-government run EMS systems, make the owner money, and screw everyone else. There are however several county run organizations out here you might want to look into. Summit county being one of them, and weld county. Ive heard they were both good, but ive thrown in the medic patch for a RN one so I haven’t tried them out.

 

[zmedic]

I back telling the patient "I think you should go to the hospital." If the patient wants to refuse that's fine and we'd do a refusal. But legally if you tell the patient that you don't think they need to go to the hospital, after they've called 911, you're putting yourself at some risk. They've done a couple of studies that when paramedics can decide who needs to go to the hospital they miss about 10% of the patient's who should be transported.

The map system in intense, it's not really memorizing but using a bunch of fold out maps and map books. I agree that I'd much rather have GPS, though it did have the benefit that I learned the county backwards and forwards which was nice as far as getting around off duty.

The ALS thing is a bit tricky, because of their contract with Boulder all patients have to get a paramedic evaluation and transport by an ALS ambulance. So the medic can't say "this is a BLS patient, I'm calling in a double EMT truck to take the patient in." So while the medic could have their partner ride in the back, the county really wants medics running the calls. Look at Longmont, they have a medic on every fire truck.

I won't argue that the higher up are focused on money. I think that's the reality of working for a third party, for profit ambulance service. The sad thing is it didn't used to be that way. Part of the problem is that as moral dropped, they lost a lot of experienced providers, so it's hard to tell a bunch of rookie medics "hey, you decide if this person should go to the hospital, needs a 12 lead etc." I wish it was like the old days but that's the way it goes.

 

[firemedic_30ca]

Well its really about giving the patient a choice, an informed decision. That’s something I didn’t see any of my FI’s do, and I was often scolded when I did so. I’ve been a medic for 10 years across 4 different states, so pridemark wasn’t my first rodeo. These people trust us and put us in a position of power. They call in their time of need, not because it’s a life threatening situation in most cases, but because they have no idea whats going on and they are looking for an educated provider to give them reassurance and comfort. As I said before, I do agree that private agencies are missing this vital portion of EMS in place of profit, this should change nothing however when it comes to morality and ethics being strictly followed. I talked to a lot of people that told me about the old days of pridemark, that’s what drew me out to Colorado in the first place. So I was a bit disappointed to see what it had become. In any case, its no secret that all private providers work this way. Just the down fall of working for them. A buddy of mine and I have decided to shake things up a bit and have started a non-profit ambulance service with those core values being followed. All our profit will be rolled over into better equipment and better pay. I believe that EMS should not a money making institution, and I’m going to prove it. In the next couple of months our ambo’s will be hitting the streets.

 

[LucidResq]

Thompson Valley EMS is the cream of the crop, from everything I hear. People who work there have told me that they are well taken care of and appreciate the progressiveness of the organization.

Their rigs are really nice too

PS: Private companies are private companies, as firemedic referred to. From my ride-alongs, friends who are employed at various area agencies including Pridemark, etc, Pridemark is pretty good compared to other companies in the area.

 

[mustangfan333]

Hi Everyone im new to this site. I've been looking at this site for a couple of months now. I just thought I would throw it out there. Louisville has it's own EMS service now. They did have Boulder County Paramedics. The two city's that Boulder County Paramedics had was Louisville and Lafayette. Lafayette also has it's own. Louisville is where I took my EMT B Class. The Paramedic that owned BCP is the EMS Chief at Lafayette. I just sign up to be a Volunteer Firefighter with Lafayette so this is how I know all of this.

 

[zmedic]

I think it's sorta a shame how the county is so fragmented. When we covered Louisville and Lafayette we did it with one ambulance and most of the time we were sitting around drinking coffee. Unless things have changed in the last few years it wasn't a super high call volume area. It's a shame that the taxpayers are footing the bill in all these towns so each can have their own rig. But congrats on getting on with Lafayette, have fun down there.

 

[MedicSchwanee]

Ski Patrol/EMS

I am a paramedic here in east texas and plan on moving to colorado around 12 months from now. Are any of these agencys around ski resorts? I plan on also doing some ski patrol near wherever I live and work.

 

[zmedic]

Summit country ambulance is near a lot of ski areas. Be aware that ski patrol isn't an easy thing to hop on at many places. Some expect you to do their OEC test or challenge it, some expect you to take a ski test which might only happen once a year. And some only take people as paid patrollers and don't take any volunteers. Here's what I remember from being out there:

Eldora: In Boulder county, both volunteer and paid patrol, have a few medics who work in their first aid room.

Winter Park: volly and paid patrol. Ski test for volunteer patrol in March of the year before.

A-Basin: Mainly paid patrol. Do have some volly paramedics.

I'd say unless you are already a very very good skier, you should plan on working the medic route to be involved with patrol, ie working in the first aid room and skiing with radio to respond to serious calls/meet them at the bottom. It'll be a much faster route than getting trained and checked off on sled running, trail closures, avey control, lift evac etc etc.

 

[MedicSchwanee]

thank ya thank ya

I appreciate the good info. I have been skiing since I was 2 and I am 24 now, I wouldn't say I am very very good but I aint to shabby either lol. I'll take a gander at em.

 

[zmedic]

Good luck. Be honest about your skiing abilities. For patrol at winter park for example they are looking for people who can ski a bump run smoothly, top to bottom without stopping. Remember that you are going to be judged against the standard of people who ski 100 days a year in Colorado, doing bumps at 9-10,000 feet. So if skiing 2-24 represents a week a year on the family ski trip you might want to plan on some training time to get the skills up. But if you are going for a medic position with the patrol they are a lot less hung up about your skiing skills since you wouldn't be doing sleds.