Info on Colorado

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dizshorty1

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so what is it like to work for colorado? the shifts? what company is the best to work with? what is the pay?

Thanks!
 
That answer to all of your questions... it depends.
 
what does it depend on?
 
dizshorty1 said:
what does it depend on?
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Where you're looking to work (CO is a BIG state), if you wanna be a hosemonkey, what cert level you are, what addons you have (if you're a basic), if you have a problem working for a private service, if anyone is actually hiring right now, etc.
 
ok...fort collins/ denver area. hospital, private, county maybe? idk if they have medics at firestations. what is their rotation? i am a paramedic.
 
dizshorty1 said:
ok...fort collins/ denver area. hospital, private, county maybe? idk if they have medics at firestations. what is their rotation? i am a paramedic.
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Fort Collins, Greeley, and Loveland does not do run Paramedics with the fire crews. Those are two different agencies in this area. Fort Collins has Poudre Valley Hospital Ambulance Service for ALS, and Poudre Fire Authority for BLS and first responder. PFA has a lot of medics working with them, but they can only do BLS interventions with patients. But PFA and PVH respond to the same calls.
Greeley has Greeley FD and Weld County Paramedics. Loveland has Loveland FD and Thompson Valley Ambulance.

We don't have too many private agencies in northern Colorado. We will see AMR and Pridemark once in a while doing transfers up to PVH, but that's about it.

I don't know how Paramedics do at the hospitals up here, we mostly have EMT-B techs. Let me know if you have any more questions.
 
Denver area you have Denver Health Paramedics who do primary 911 for County and City of Denver. DFD is a BLS only agency (they have medics but are limited to BLS scope). Action Care is based in Centennial and does primarily IFT, but some OLFA calls as well as primary 911 in... Sheridan I think.
R/M does primary 911 in Aurora w/ AFD.
Pridemark was just bought up by R/M... I heard they lost one of their 911 contracts (Arvada I think) but are still primary 911 in Boulder.
AMR is primarily IFT, but they do 911 in Longmont and the Springs.
 
dizshorty1 said:
wow thanks for the info! so what is the rotation like? 24/48 or 36/72
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Most of the metro services run 12s... Oh, I forgot South Metro and West Metro FDs. They run ALS 911 transport and first response. Some of hte only FD based EMS that I like. Great guys and some great medical direction.
 
Denver does 4 10s. First shift starts at 0530 and the last at 2130, everything else fall in between. Not hiring for a while though. They also run 911 for the city of Sheridan now too. Not that it adds much to call volume though, 600 calls per year maybe.

FD in the metro area is very competitive (like everywhere I would guess). If you are looking to get a foot in the door in the area your best bet is Rural Metro, AMR or Action Care. Not loads of 911 for any of them (Aurora does not count), but it's a paycheck until you can get a better job.

Denver Paramedics would be the busiest, but like I said, not hiring for a while.
 
JeffDHMC said:
Denver does 4 10s. First shift starts at 0530 and the last at 2130, everything else fall in between. Not hiring for a while though. They also run 911 for the city of Sheridan now too. Not that it adds much to call volume though, 600 calls per year maybe.

FD in the metro area is very competitive (like everywhere I would guess). If you are looking to get a foot in the door in the area your best bet is Rural Metro, AMR or Action Care. Not loads of 911 for any of them (Aurora does not count), but it's a paycheck until you can get a better job.

Denver Paramedics would be the busiest, but like I said, not hiring for a while.
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I know Denver Paramedics just did a whole bunch of hiring. Any idea when they will start hiring again? As much as I like being an ambulance driver, I'd rather be a Paramedic. Sometimes I think it would be easier to go back to Paramedic school through DH just to get a job there :D.
To the OP: as far as schedule goes it breaks down like this:

AMR: 8hr, 12hr, 24hr and 48hr shifts available. the 24hr shifts are mostly in Golden (911) and they did have a few in Boulder last I heard. 48s are in Longmont (911) and 1 in Boulder.

Pridemark: 8hr, 10hr, 12hr shifts. They have several 911 cars in Boulder (911) and Arvada (911, they didn't lose that contract).

Rural/Metro: 8hr, 12hr, 24hr shifts. The 24hr shifts are mostly in Aurora (911, kinda), with a few in Littleton that do transport for Littleton FD when they don't feel like their ambulance is needed for the transport.

Actioncare: I have no idea, I know they have some 12hr and some 24hr shifts, but that was a few years ago. I have no idea what they have now.

Pay is mostly the same among privates. AMR tends to pay better because they are bigger, and Pridemark pays fairly well also. That said, we are only talking $1 to several cents difference here.
 
Well, things are always shifting, moving and changing I guess. Turns out you should hit the website and put your app in.
 
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