Ok, EMSA are these guys a good company?

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1979nd

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Rocketmedic40..

So far I like it here... thanx for you detailed info about this place and the differences from Cali to mid west...Although I do miss the beach/ocean and surfing... I figure I can always move back in time to a surf friendly area.
The experience here is great. In the 2 weeks I have been cleared and running on my own without the hand holding, it's been worth it!
Living here is affordable to say the least. My girl finally moved on out here, now she's about ready to look for work and buy a car and all that. Thinking about getting a Jeep so we can use it as a toy on days off and go mudding and what ever else the "country" offers to do out in the sicks. hahaha
At first I was sorta pissed off about AMR buying out P+. I honestly was stoked to work for P+ the more I learned about them. Seemed like a real encouraging work culture. I have never worked for AMR but for all the people I know who works/ed for AMR it has always seemed as the employee is treated as a number and not as a valued entity. I guess we all will find out how that turns out. I figured at least now I won't be binded to a 3 year contract anymore. I'll have gotten 1/2 of the sign on bonus they promised me... well it actually turns out it cost me nothing but time to come out here and $2500 on my next pay check for clearing.... the other 10k I say good bye to... but like I said, I am not binded to be locked in for 3 years.
So far this place, Tulsa, has been kind. Livin is waaaay cheaper than SF, ppl aren't as culturally divers, but so far it's been good getting out of Cali for a minute.
EMSA has all the new toys and trucks, most the ppl I have worked with know what to do, some EMT's are clueless but I guess that'S everywhere.

Hey Rocket, did you get your recommendation bonus? I hope you did cuz if it weren't for you buddy I would have not come out here all this way!!!!
 
RocketMedic

RocketMedic

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1979nd said:
Rocketmedic40..

So far I like it here... thanx for you detailed info about this place and the differences from Cali to mid west...Although I do miss the beach/ocean and surfing... I figure I can always move back in time to a surf friendly area.
The experience here is great. In the 2 weeks I have been cleared and running on my own without the hand holding, it's been worth it!
Living here is affordable to say the least. My girl finally moved on out here, now she's about ready to look for work and buy a car and all that. Thinking about getting a Jeep so we can use it as a toy on days off and go mudding and what ever else the "country" offers to do out in the sicks. hahaha
At first I was sorta pissed off about AMR buying out P+. I honestly was stoked to work for P+ the more I learned about them. Seemed like a real encouraging work culture. I have never worked for AMR but for all the people I know who works/ed for AMR it has always seemed as the employee is treated as a number and not as a valued entity. I guess we all will find out how that turns out. I figured at least now I won't be binded to a 3 year contract anymore. I'll have gotten 1/2 of the sign on bonus they promised me... well it actually turns out it cost me nothing but time to come out here and $2500 on my next pay check for clearing.... the other 10k I say good bye to... but like I said, I am not binded to be locked in for 3 years.
So far this place, Tulsa, has been kind. Livin is waaaay cheaper than SF, ppl aren't as culturally divers, but so far it's been good getting out of Cali for a minute.
EMSA has all the new toys and trucks, most the ppl I have worked with know what to do, some EMT's are clueless but I guess that'S everywhere.

Hey Rocket, did you get your recommendation bonus? I hope you did cuz if it weren't for you buddy I would have not come out here all this way!!!!
Click to expand...

Not yet I need your name to drop to Joanne on my end- can you PM it to me?

I really don't think much is going to change, brother. The trust is too heavily regulated to get AMR-ized, and they will gain very little from upsetting the machine. On our level, everything will remain the same. At the end of the day, we are ALS 911 paramedics in a system that allows us to really be paramedics, with decent protocols, decent gear and a brand name people trust. Despite all the union and management waves, I make a decent living, go to school and have never regretted being a paramedic here.

Looking at the medics in other places without autonomy or adequate equipment, antique protocols and horrific pay makes me glad to be an EMSA medic. This is an EMS service, not an ambulance service. There is a difference.
 
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Wheel

Wheel

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Rocketmedic40 said:
Not yet I need your name to drop to Joanne on my end- can you PM it to me?

I really don't think much is going to change, brother. The trust is too heavily regulated to get AMR-ized, and they will gain very little from upsetting the machine. On our level, everything will remain the same. At the end of the day, we are ALS 911 paramedics in a system that allows us to really be paramedics, with decent protocols, decent gear and a brand name people trust. Despite all the union and management waves, I make a decent living, go to school and have never regretted being a paramedic here.

Looking at the medics in other places without autonomy or adequate equipment, antique protocols and horrific pay makes me glad to be an EMSA medic. This is an EMS service, not an ambulance service. There is a difference.
Click to expand...

Drinking the kool-aid now eh?;)
 
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BasicBek

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1979nd said:
Rocketmedic40..

So far I like it here... thanx for you detailed info about this place and the differences from Cali to mid west...Although I do miss the beach/ocean and surfing... I figure I can always move back in time to a surf friendly area.
The experience here is great. In the 2 weeks I have been cleared and running on my own without the hand holding, it's been worth it!
Living here is affordable to say the least. My girl finally moved on out here, now she's about ready to look for work and buy a car and all that. Thinking about getting a Jeep so we can use it as a toy on days off and go mudding and what ever else the "country" offers to do out in the sicks. hahaha
At first I was sorta pissed off about AMR buying out P+. I honestly was stoked to work for P+ the more I learned about them. Seemed like a real encouraging work culture. I have never worked for AMR but for all the people I know who works/ed for AMR it has always seemed as the employee is treated as a number and not as a valued entity. I guess we all will find out how that turns out. I figured at least now I won't be binded to a 3 year contract anymore. I'll have gotten 1/2 of the sign on bonus they promised me... well it actually turns out it cost me nothing but time to come out here and $2500 on my next pay check for clearing.... the other 10k I say good bye to... but like I said, I am not binded to be locked in for 3 years.
So far this place, Tulsa, has been kind. Livin is waaaay cheaper than SF, ppl aren't as culturally divers, but so far it's been good getting out of Cali for a minute.
EMSA has all the new toys and trucks, most the ppl I have worked with know what to do, some EMT's are clueless but I guess that'S everywhere.

Hey Rocket, did you get your recommendation bonus? I hope you did cuz if it weren't for you buddy I would have not come out here all this way!!!!
Click to expand...

Welcome. I'm originally from Seattle. But Tulsa does grow on you. I love this city. Working for EMSA helps, haha
 
RocketMedic

RocketMedic

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Oh, it'll all be OK. AMR is like the Borg to PPI's Romulans.
 
RocketMedic

RocketMedic

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1979nd said:
Looks like I posted my last reply to soon.
THANK YOU ROCKETMEDIC. This is the info I have been searching for.

oh and i think I have 2 more post b4 I can PM you. I'll work on that and I'll use you for reference. cheers
Click to expand...

Originally Posted by Rocketmedic40 View Post
1979 and future readers;

EMSA (the Emergency Medical Services Authority of Oklahoma City/Tulsa), is, at its core, a third-service EMS agency. EMSA is technically a nonprofit corporation that is overseen by a board of directors and survives with a water-bill subscription program called TotalCare and billing for services. EMSA covers something like 3 million people at any one time between Tulsa and Oklahoma City and is the primary 911 response agency for all medical calls within its service area (Oklahoma County, Eastern Canadian County, parts of Cleveland County, Tulsa County and other fringe areas up there). As the EMSA is government-funded, the trucks are all relatively new (the oldest ones down here are 2008) and the equipment is top-notch, albeit lacking some cool things like LUCAS. To serve its population base, EMSA practices system-status management with a variety of shifts between its Eastern and Western (Tulsa and OKC) divisions. As an EMSA medic, you are the medical- so Californians and R/M Colorado, we do not have to wait for, care about or listen to fire medics. These are our patients. OKC and Tulsa have identical protocols (PM me, I can forward a digital copy to you).

Operationally, you are an employee of Paramedics Plus, the paramedic-staffing arm of East Texas Medical Center in Tyler, TX. As a P+ employee, you can transfer within the company to a place of greater need. EMSA does not advertise this affiliation, but it's not denied either- most people assume we are government employees. Paramedics Plus and EMSA have a fairly close relationship. Tulsa has been a Paramedics Plus stronghold for nearly twenty years, OKC was acquired from AMR in the early 2000s. Functionally, this means that you can work on either end of the turnpike with no transition needed.

Our pay is about area-average, maybe area-average plus. As a Step 2 paramedic, I make $15.36/hour on a 48-hour schedule. Tulsa medics make more, but are on a sweet 42-hour rotating 3/4 schedule that keeps them at the same annual rates (a 15% raise across the board there). Western Division is unionized, Eastern is not. Western is currently still on a 48-hour 4-on 3-off schedule, but is negotiating with the union to implement the rotation here. Overtime is steadily available. Functionally, you can expect to make around $40-43k/year here. We also have bonuses for critical-need OT shifts, which means that some of your overtime could potentially be $30 or $40/hour.

American Medical Response and Paramedics Plus are in a bidding war for EMSA, with no clear winner to be announced until October. There is also a city buyout option a la MAST or REMSA. Field employees are safe.

What's it like to work for EMSA (in all honesty)? That's a great question. I left EMSA several weeks ago and came running back (just waiting on my drug test results to come back in so I can hop on a truck and go out), did a lot of self-inspection and growing up and gained a little outside perspective.

EMSA is a system moreso than a lot of other places and relies upon relatively strict assignments and structures to ensure smooth function and appropriate patient care. As a paramedic, you will tech everything in the EMSA system, your partner (although important) is primarily a driver. Dual-medic trucks do exist and are pleasant, but plan on attending every patient. We do a lot of post moves every night and average between 6 and 10 calls/night per crew in the Western Division, 90% 911. We do some IFT, primarily ER to ER, but that's rare. On most occasions, the system is able to send help if needed- so your thirty-patient calls are not rural nightmares, but ten or so ambulances will arrive rapidly. Medically, we are fairly aggressive and progressive in some areas, nearly retro in others. A few months ago, as a brand-new full-time medic, I got butthurt that I was being looked at for providing what I thought was appropriate care. In hindsight, I should have exercised more discretion in use of pain meds (that's not to say I was wrong, but I was probably a little overzealous). We are often accused of being protocol-driven, with some justification- we literally have a protocol for almost everything, including some things that you can realistically expect to see once or so a year. That accusation is actually the inverse of what I thought- my week at REACT showed me that we, as paramedics, are far more trusted in the EMSA system than we were in the REACT model in terms of actual patient care. EMSA's ideal is to make good medical care a matter of drill reinforced by thought, whereas other services tend to try and model thought into drill. I think both are valid approaches when the paramedic can remember both are needed. As opposed to a smaller service, we can actually stay on-scene and help patients when appropriate. I knew REACT wasn't for me when we did a diabetic wakeup in the truck 'because we can't take the time to wait on-scene with her, so we transport". At EMSA, we can be paramedics, not AEMT+.

Our service area and customer base is pretty diverse. OKC has a knife and gun club, every ethnicity (I ran a Cambodian patient a few months back), and plenty of hospitals, treatment options, crime and slums literally next to mansions. It is nothing like the nearly 100% homogenous groups I grew up with in California (out in the desert).

EMSA's medical director, Dr. Goodloe, does a lot of research and likes to publish, which means that we have a pretty wide scope of effective practice and a reasonable amount of freedom. BiPAP on trucks, mag sulfate for asthma, tourniquets, TXA...we are pretty high-speed in some areas, far moreso than the general area. Considering that one of my REACT co-workers told me that "tourniquets guarantee amputation" and wholeheartedly believed it, I'd rather live in EMSA's area should I need EMS. As far as pain management goes, it's pretty conservative, but I have learned to adjust my practice for that. We do not currently have true RSI, but we can facilitate intubations with etomidate and versed. We are also a fairly progressive service in that we don't crucify you for using supraglottics like the King LT, aids like bougies or even making small mistakes. The grass is definitely greener in the Oklahoma region at EMSA than other places IMO. EMSA may be the Borg, but better the Borg than some crappy Firefly rejects. Oklahoma (and everywhere else, I presume) is cursed with an abundance of pro-volunteer, Ricky Rescue, Hillbilly EMS-type providers. EMSA is trying to change that, and does legitimately hold itself to a higher standard than other places. Look at the cots- an EMSA crew generally lugs both bags and the monitor to the patient; REACT is lucky to take the monitor and generally leaves the bag in the truck. Yes, EMSA is some harder work, but it pays off. Ever have to mega-mover someone downstairs instead of a stairchair because "we need to get done with this one fast"? Not at EMSA.

We are a Physio LP-15/Impact 731 vent/IV pump (Tulsa)/Zoll Rescuenet/Ford F450 ambulance company. All trucks are identically-configured AEV ambulances. Broken equipment is immediately replaced.

All in all, I love being an EMSA Paramedic. The flaws in the system are the Iron Schedule and the posting- it's great to get out of the truck and relax, but we are honestly generally fairly busy. I can check out my truck, do my job and help people for eleven or twelve hours, drop it off to get restocked and deep-cleaned, and go home. I realistically expect to see 1-2 ALS patients a night. I don't have to be a firefighter's taxi service. After leaving the flock for a few days, I realized that what I thought were complaints were really just immature *****ing and that the best option I had was to return to EMSA and adapt to the company's way of doing things. I won't lie to you and claim that there isn't a game, Kool-Aid or some griping, but that's normal anywhere. I have learned that the secret to success here is to play the game with a smile on your face, lightly sip the Kool-Aid and don't worry about the little things, because it does most definitely get worse in other places. If you want to do this professionally, I am learning, that is the best advise possible no matter where you work. I don't yet know if EMSA will be a career place, but after my indiscretion in leaving, the grass is greenest locally here. It's going to take a drastically better-compensated offer to get me to move again, and that's years away.

Come on over from California, brother. It's a good place and I think you'll really like it. I know I do. Oklahoma's a bit...different, but not in a bad way. The Duck Dynasty lookalikes are not all we have, and even they have 4G, WiFi, college and such. If you're married, the job market here is pretty diverse and easy to get hired into pretty much anything. Taxes are lower, turnpikes are annoying and votes go Republican.

PM me if you have any questions. (Also, if you're thinking about EMSA, PM me- I want recruiter bonuses lol!)

Starcare drone monitor, if you happen upon this, this drone is functional and happy!

-Bumped
 
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1979nd

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Wheel said:
Probably rocket. He's been MIA for a bit.
Click to expand...

ok, cool, cool. I wasn't sure. I know I'm not known here, I didn't know if someone figured out my real identity on here. I too have been MIA at work. Injured my knee on a call and been sitting on my butt waiting for this slooow *** 3rd party claims adjuster to get me into surgery... I swear the 3rd party "case manager" is 100% the reason why ppl are out so long on disability... I had to get a second opinion after receiving Dx of a major meniscus tear from a well know orthopedic MD. the second guy Dx the same thing.... I swear, these "case managers" don't even work, they just sit on their *** making the employees suffer and wait out this loong *** process just to get the problem fixed... its been 6 weeks now since I have been able to work, I apologize, thought it may have been someone I worked with here in Tulsa.

cheers.
 
Wheel

Wheel

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1979nd said:
ok, cool, cool. I wasn't sure. I know I'm not known here, I didn't know if someone figured out my real identity on here. I too have been MIA at work. Injured my knee on a call and been sitting on my butt waiting for this slooow *** 3rd party claims adjuster to get me into surgery... I swear the 3rd party "case manager" is 100% the reason why ppl are out so long on disability... I had to get a second opinion after receiving Dx of a major meniscus tear from a well know orthopedic MD. the second guy Dx the same thing.... I swear, these "case managers" don't even work, they just sit on their *** making the employees suffer and wait out this loong *** process just to get the problem fixed... its been 6 weeks now since I have been able to work, I apologize, thought it may have been someone I worked with here in Tulsa.

cheers.
Click to expand...

Ouch man, that's rough. I bet you're ready to get this handled quickly and get back out there. I hope you get well soon.
 
OP
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1979nd

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Wheel said:
Ouch man, that's rough. I bet you're ready to get this handled quickly and get back out there. I hope you get well soon.
Click to expand...

Yup, I am. I hate sitting on my butt. I want to work and I keep telling this CM that I know there are plenty of ppl on work disability that are 100% ok with milking this process, I am NOT.
Anyway, good news they are eventually going to take care of this for me... bad news I just gotta wait, keep up with my protocols and do my best to stay sane.

thanx for the good wishes.
 
M

Manonamission

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EMSA in OKC

I have an interview here this week and I'm really excited. I've worked so hard to graduate school and I passed my NREMT on my first try. Now I'm ready to start working and provide a better life for my family. I have a few questions....
1) Does anyone know how much EMT-B make per hour at this company
2) Is this a good company to work for?
3) Is overtime possible?
4) Any tips for the interview?

Thanks so much everyone! Cross your fingers for me!
 
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