Survey

[FlightMedicHunter]

Hey EMS folk,,,,I'm working on a research project titled "Fire department based vs. private or third party service provided EMS transport." If you have a moment, please take my survey. Please forward this link to as many EMS people as you can. The more people who take the survey, the more accurate the results will be. THANKS!!!!



http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J2GR6RR

 

[Veneficus]

I think those questions are not going to provide you with usable data to make a case for anything except FD based EMS.

The things that makes EMS worth the effort and money compared to the fire service were not really touched upon. All except one question played to obvious FD strengths so it appears too biased to me to have any use or objective finding.

 

[JJR512]

I think that the answers to some of those questions will greatly depend on what a person's experience is with respect to the EMS system where he or she lives and works.

For example, in Maryland (at least the Greater Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area), primary EMS is provided by fire departments. There are private companies, but they mainly provide interfacility transport.

So given my experience, my answer to a question like, "Do you think a private EMS transport unit will have better response times than a fire department transport unit," would have to be No. Private companies have offices and their units respond either from there or, more commonly, from wherever they last dropped someone off. They don't have multiple locations spread all over the area at strategic locations. The system here is not set up for 3rd-party providers to have extremely quick response times. But if someone else comes from a location where primary EMS is provided by an entity other than the fire department, then they're answer to this question will probably be Yes, because that's how the system there is set up. The 3rd-party or private providers probably have multiple response locations.

Here's another question that's problematic: "Do you think that a private EMS transport unit will have more qualified and experienced paramedics than an FD transport unit?" Are you asking if I think a private EMS company has a higher number of qualified providers, or are you asking if I think a private EMS company has better providers? The question, as written, is somewhat ambiguous as to what the "more" is about. In other words, it could be interpreted as "more medics that are qualified" or "medics that are more qualified". That's two very different meanings.

Regarding that question, let me assume for a moment that you meant to ask if I think a private EMS company has EMS providers that are more qualified than the fire department's EMS providers. Again, this answer will vary depending on a person's experience. There is also some ambiguity regarding qualified for what. I'm going to assume, based on the nature of the survey, that you mean qualified to respond to emergencies and transport patients from an emergency to a hospital. Again, because I come from an area where primary EMS comes from the fire department, my answer will be that fire department-based EMS providers are better-qualified to respond to emergencies. That's there experience, so it just makes sense. On the other hand, the private EMS providers are better-qualified to manage a critical-care patient on an inter-facility transport. Most fire department EMS providers around here, for example, are unfamiliar with ventilators (unless they happen to work for a private EMS company on their off days, of course). Now, just as with the other question, the answer will probably be the reverse for someone who comes from a location where primary EMS is provided by 3rd parties. There, the fire department probably has little training and experience in EMS, so naturally the providers that do it regularly—the private companies—will do it better in those locations.

 

[FlightMedicHunter]

I think those questions are not going to provide you with usable data to make a case for anything except FD based EMS.

The things that makes EMS worth the effort and money compared to the fire service were not really touched upon. All except one question played to obvious FD strengths so it appears too biased to me to have any use or objective finding.

Good points....however....you have not read the abstract so you are not aware of what the full projecting is aiming to discover. Based on the 30 surveys that have already been completed the overall outcome is clearly favoring 3rd service EMS.

 

[FlightMedicHunter]

Regarding that question, let me assume for a moment that you meant to ask if I think a private EMS company has EMS providers that are more qualified than the fire department's EMS providers. Again, this answer will vary depending on a person's experience.

Yes, that is the point of that questions and yes, it will obviously vary depending on experience. That's the point of the survey. I am not simply doing a paper based on a survey. This is a full research project that includes a survey for subjectivity. There will be plenty of data in the research project that is objective that will include things like finances, actual response times, turnover rates, etc.

I appreciate and encourage the input...

 

[JPINFV]

I started answering the survey, but after my third "not sure" with the reasoning being, "it depends," I closed the survey. For example, "does EMS based fire suppression provide better care?" Well, it depends. Too many fire suppression agencies force people to become paramedics, resulting in bad care due to disinterest while too many private companies take anyone with a pulse. However there are plenty that don't. If a private company doesn't take everyone with a pulse and a cert, then they can provide good care. If a fire suppression agency doesn't force everyone to work on the ambulance or force everyone to become a paramedic, then they can be good providers.

 

[JJR512]

As JPINFV just said, there are really too many "it depends". I didn't select "Not sure" for every response, but for the vast majority of them.

From the title of your research project ("Fire department based vs. private or third party service provided EMS transport"), I assume you are trying to determine which of those two options is better.

The results of this survey will be absolutely uncontributive to answering that question.

All this survey will tell you is what insiders think is better. And if more of your respondents come from a 3rd-party or non-FD background, then that is probably how your responses will be skewed.

To determine which type of system is better, you need to look at multiple jurisdictions that have one system or the other and compare statistics. You need to analyze underlying causes for those statistics. Subjective data such as what you're getting from this survey is, in my opinion, a nice little anecdote for the research paper but is ultimately irrelevant. So if the point of this particular survey was to find something for a nice little anecdote, I hope you get what you're looking for. But I also hope you're not going to make any conclusions about which kind of system is better based on what you get out of this survey.

 

[FlightMedicHunter]

The results of this survey will be absolutely uncontributive to answering that question.

All this survey will tell you is what insiders think is better.

As I stated earlier, the purpose of this survey is to get subjective opinions. The majority of the questions start with "do you think". Many people that have chosen "not sure" have also added lots of comments in the space provided in the survey. It appears you are trying to imply that a research project cannot have subjective data within the project and that is just simply not the case. Again, like I said earlier there will be plenty of objective data within the project. Part of the project will also evaluate the subjective opinions of those within the EMS world. This is perfectly acceptable for a project such as this. I don't know if you have done research projects before. I have done many. Surveys are a part of just about every research project. The data collected in a survey is not always what is used to formulate a conclusion. In fact, it is hardly used for that purpose. The data in most surveys is simply there to give the researcher SUBJECTIVE opinions about the topic so that the researcher can be fully aware of all points of view and maybe even be educated on points that he never thought of in the first place.

Let me give you an example,,,one of the questions asks "Do you think that a private EMS agency is more likely to retain employees for the length of their career as opposed to the fire department?"

One of the respondents replied "Private agencies almost universally underpay their medics, relying completely on the market to define paramedic wages without regard to skill levels or longevity"

So, will I use this answer to formulate a conclusion to the overall question that the project is asking? No. But, it is very useful information as I have neglected to look at what different markets base their pay on in terms of actual skill level,,if they even do that.

Again, the purpose of the project is to formulate an objective conclusion but it may take many different subjective opinions to point me in all the right directions.