SF Bay Area EMS

[Double-E]

hey folks,

i'm looking for a career change and after some soul searching i decided on ems. i'm starting a 10-week emt-b program here in san francisco soon.

curious if anyone from the area has any tips on things like employers in the area or general politics that i should be aware of. i live in san francisco and would like to work in this city once i get my cert.

as far as i can tell, the private ops in the city are pro-transport, king-med, west-med & amr (though i did see an "american ambulance" the other day...they're supposed to be out of fresno???). also, i'm pretty sure the sffd gets priority on calls in the city though that's supposedly in jeopardy due to shody response times lately. i'd imagine it's rather hard to get in...anyone know anything about that? if they only hire medics, etc?

cheers

 

[HereToLearn]

King American is in San Francisco. Their company, as well as AMR, are backup on the 911 system for San Francisco Fire who is the primary for 911 transports. If this information is wrong, feel free to correct it. This is what I've been told from a few different sources.

To add to that...

I know a bunch of people, all with previous EMT experience, who have been on their lists for months and haven't even gotten an interview yet. So good luck getting hired. It's a harsh truth.

Pro transport does a lot of IFT's. Probably a good thing when you are starting out. I knew one girl who worked for them a couple years ago. She enjoyed it. I believe they are based out of the east bay, but do BLS IFT's all over the bay area.

I was actually just talking to a guy who works for WestMed the other day. He enjoyed it. But it's also his first EMT job, so he doesn't have much to compare it to. From our short conversation, it was all IFT's.

Oh and by the way, all these companies pay very poorly. Not nearly enough to live comfortably in San Francisco. Just something to consider.

Finally, SFFD is going to open their hiring list again very soon. I'd recommend you check out their website for more information and their minimum requirements for submitting an application.

 

[Double-E]

Oh and by the way, all these companies pay very poorly. Not nearly enough to live comfortably in San Francisco. Just something to consider.

yah, i enquired with the various agencies in the area about pay...

king american starts @ $14.26/hr on 10 hr shifts.
amr starts @ $17.32

quite a disparity there! i've lived off of $14/hr in the city before though (while paying $1200/mo in rent, at that!) so im not too worried.

thanks for the input, bruv! it was just what i was looking for

anyone else? i know i've seen a few others posting from the bay...

 

[Markhk]

Some other companies in the area:

Bayshore Ambulance (South San Francisco)
Silicon Valley Ambulance (Based in San Jose)
Golden State (San Jose)

South San Francisco Fire runs a BLS transport service that serves as a cadet pool for hiring.

Palo Alto Fire runs a BLS program using non-sworn, part time EMTs.

American Ambulance is based out of Fresno. They have a good reputation, a bunch of my fellow paramedic students ended up there to intern.

You can also consider some ER/ED Tech jobs in the area. I heard that Sutter in Walnut Creek and CPC in SF were looking to hire.

 

[VentMedic]

You can also consider some ER/ED Tech jobs in the area. I heard that Sutter in Walnut Creek and CPC in SF were looking to hire.

Kaiser, CHW and Sutter have a hiring freeze as does the city of SF to restrict hiring of some personnel. In fact, there have been several layoffs and restructuring. A couple of hospitals have just be saved from closure but that could still be considered in the future if things don't turn around.

The hospitals that are hiring, at least for essential personnel, are overwhelmed with applications for licensed professional staff so I can't imagine how many applications they are getting for tech positions.

If you are are looking at an ER Tech position, beef up your resume with a phlebotomy cert. Also, network while you are doing your ED rotations.