FTO completion...

[Chef]

After many many weeks; tomorrow night is my final FTO shift (1900 25th thru ???? 26th). I still have a barage of testing to complete before I meet with the Medical Director on 5 Janurary. Been a long wait since I converted to Full Time in late August.

 

[Operations Guy]

If your coming from part time to full time why did they put you on such a long FTO period? Should of been a quick process.

 

[Chef]

If your coming from part time to full time why did they put you on such a long FTO period? Should of been a quick process.

Yeaaaahhhhh... Didn't make much sense to me either.

 

[Operations Guy]

That's ridiculous.

 

[Chef]

I concur but what can you do.... The hardest part for me is to watch an organization struggle as much as this one. We now have a great leader that will impliment change in due time but with almost 20 years of leadership under my belt; it's hard absorbing the tremendous volume of BS that occours here in a regular basis.

 

[NomadicMedic]

Anyone who has a managerial background can become frustrated with EMS management pretty quickly.

 

[akflightmedic]

You mean always promoting from within or promoting who has been around the longest is not a great idea?

As much as it sucks for the ones who have been there...hiring from outside is darn nearly almost always best for positive change. Need to maintain a balance of internal and external promotions always.

 

[DrParasite]

Hold on, let me fix that for you:

hiring from outside is darn nearly almost always best for any type of change.

While I do agree that hiring an outsider can often bring about change, not all change is good, and I do know of new leaders who have made an organization go from bad to worse.

And I will also say that nothing sucks more than working several years at an agency, doing what "they" want you to do in order to succeed, conforming to "their" expectations, only to be passed over for promotion because the agency wants to hire someone from the outside for a "fresh perspective."

 

[akflightmedic]

There are many times where the change is neither recognized, appreciated, nor understood by the operational staff, yet it is a very welcome change for the execs or owners and aligns nicely with their long term business strategy/plans.

 

[NomadicMedic]

The rank and file usually has no idea of long term plans, management strategy or any real operational issues aside from those that effect them individually.

 

[Operations Guy]

AMR has a problem I'll be the first to admit it. When regional CEO's have no EMS experience it's bad. Heck the regional CEO that covers AMR south use to design airport logistics systems. One of biggest issues is AMR thinks they can use a cookie cutter approach to all markets they are in. It might work good for purchasing large fleets of ambulances or narcotics but not with people.

 

[RocketMedic]

I think I could run an AMR region better than they have.

 

[Operations Guy]

Probably true. Issue is AMR is owned by Envision Healthcare and answers to them them to the stock holders. Ever since Envision bought Rural Metro alot of people thought they would merge the two. Well Envision decided to keep them two separate companies. However Envision in there great thinking decided to have some senior AMR bosses go in and clean up Rural Metro. Now the same issues at AMR are very well seen at Rural Metro. But then again thats not saying much cause Rural Metro was losing money big time.

 

[Operations Guy]

I think I could run an AMR region better than they have.

You have to much EMS experience lol.

 

[akflightmedic]

AMR has a problem I'll be the first to admit it. When regional CEO's have no EMS experience it's bad. Heck the regional CEO that covers AMR south use to design airport logistics systems. One of biggest issues is AMR thinks they can use a cookie cutter approach to all markets they are in. It might work good for purchasing large fleets of ambulances or narcotics but not with people.

There was a time where I would have agreed. But in all seriousness, from a business perspective, you do not need experience in EMS to run an EMS company. You do need some decent rank and file whom you trust, however you yourself do not require it. I would even go as far to say that having experience in EMS could actually be bad for the overall operations and business in general....as in, sometimes too much knowledge is dangerous.

 

[Operations Guy]

There was a time where I would have agreed. But in all seriousness, from a business perspective, you do not need experience in EMS to run an EMS company. You do need some decent rank and file whom you trust, however you yourself do not require it. I would even go as far to say that having experience in EMS could actually be bad for the overall operations and business in general....as in, sometimes too much knowledge is dangerous.

You raise a good point AK. The current CEO and President of AMR has EMS experience but is a long time company man. All the regional CEOs do not so I guess its a balance. I think it's almost a total disconnect however as their is no outside thinking brought in from outside AMR to mid level positions like operations managers and operations supervisors. In my opinion AMR could fix alot of issues by having operations managers and operations supervisors ride out on a truck every so often. Operations Supervisors only get into the field nowadays by riding around in their SUV and occasionally maybe going to a scene if there is a MCI or an ambulance crashed. Maybe I'm just getting old but I remember when AMR Operations Supervisors where backing crews on calls and a needed set of hands if needed during a high level call like a code or MVA. Heck I remember one years ago on a MVA the operations supervisor came out and blocked traffic with his SUV then started patient care on the other less injured party involved.

 

[Chef]

Some of our supervisors will get out and play in a regular basis. Others just sit in the office watching Netflix!!

 

[Operations Guy]

Some of our supervisors will get out and play in a regular basis. Others just sit in the office watching Netflix!!

Yeah the only reason most of them are around is to make sure the shift gose fine and catch up on their episodes of "The Care Bears."

 

[RocketMedic]

Dave Wheeler, out at AMR-Alamogordo, is everything that an operations manager should be. He ran calls with us, he supported us, he went out of pocket to buy cleaning supplies when we ran short, he came in at 0300 to help us put up a reserve truck. The man is still what I judge leaders by, in any field, and he left a big impact on me. I'd follow him anywhere. I just wish AMR would let him pay his people more.

Sonny Geary @ EMSA on the other hand is exactly what EMS leadership should never be. I remember coming into work and finding my assigned ambulance filthy, bloody and generally unfit. There were no cleaning supplies or blankets and we were short on a bunch of other things (they were "working on the budget") (PS Oklahoma is cold in the winter). Sonny was at the garage getting ready to go out for some special event and I saw him, told him we were out of supplies in the hopes he'd do something about it (supervisors weren't worth spit). His response? "That's not my problem." No, dude, it is literally by definition your problem.

Long story short, AMR (and Acadian, and a lot of other places) make bad choices in leadership all the time by forgetting that we work with people.

 

[Operations Guy]

I think Dave is in Tucson now if I'm not mistaken.