Tulare County Employment Update (many opportunities)

[CentralCalEMT]

There have been some big changes in Tulare County recently. AMR Tulare County closed down at the beginning of September. Consequently, the other providers have had to handle the increased call volume. Combine that with the all ready high call volume and, as a result, there are multiple job opportunities for EMTs and Paramedics all across the county. As this time, Imperial Ambulance in Porterville, American Ambulance of Visalia (not Fresno), and Lifestar Ambulance in Tulare, all have openings for both EMTs and Paramedics. I am not a recruiter, so I do not know what specific certs and/or driving record each company requires as it varies by company.

Tulare County is a good place to get EMS experience. The county itself is huge, covering almost 5,000 square miles (larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined) and a population approaching 450,000. There is everything from huge Central Valley farms to medium size cities to small towns as well as rivers, mountains, a national forest, a national park with giant Sequoia groves, and everything in between. You can run a gang related shooting and respond to an injured hiker down a remote trail in the same day.

All the companies in the county operate both 24 and 48 hour shifts as well as 12 hour shifts. The vast majority of the shifts are either 24 or 48 hours though and people generally start out on those shifts. Pay for paramedics is decent for the area and varies by company, but is generally at least 50K for full time paramedics. EMT pay is on the lower end of things. Cost of living is far less than it is in Southern and Northern California.

Fire is ALS in two of the cities, In the other cities as well as the unincorporated area, fire is BLS. There are only 3 hospitals (only one of which is a trauma/STEMI center) so there are long transport times and helicopter transport is used frequently.

If anyone is interested, a quick Google search should give you contact info from all the companies. If you have been working in LA/OC and want to experience a system where the transporting ALS ambulance is in charge of patient care, this might be the system for you. You can ask me any questions, but, as I am not a recruiter and am not affiliated with two of those companies at all, I might not be able to answer them.

 

[VentMonkey]

There have been some big changes in Tulare County recently. AMR Tulare County closed down at the beginning of September. Consequently, the other providers have had to handle the increased call volume. Combine that with the all ready high call volume and, as a result, there are multiple job opportunities for EMTs and Paramedics all across the county. As this time, Imperial Ambulance in Porterville, American Ambulance of Visalia (not Fresno), and Lifestar Ambulance in Tulare, all have openings for both EMTs and Paramedics. I am not a recruiter, so I do not know what specific certs and/or driving record each company requires as it varies by company.

Tulare County is a good place to get EMS experience. The county itself is huge, covering almost 5,000 square miles (larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined) and a population approaching 450,000. There is everything from huge Central Valley farms to medium size cities to small towns as well as rivers, mountains, a national forest, a national park with giant Sequoia groves, and everything in between. You can run a gang related shooting and respond to an injured hiker down a remote trail in the same day.

All the companies in the county operate both 24 and 48 hour shifts as well as 12 hour shifts. The vast majority of the shifts are either 24 or 48 hours though and people generally start out on those shifts. Pay for paramedics is decent for the area and varies by company, but is generally at least 50K for full time paramedics. EMT pay is on the lower end of things. Cost of living is far less than it is in Southern and Northern California.

Fire is ALS in two of the cities, In the other cities as well as the unincorporated area, fire is BLS. There are only 3 hospitals (only one of which is a trauma/STEMI center) so there are long transport times and helicopter transport is used frequently.

If anyone is interested, a quick Google search should give you contact info from all the companies. If you have been working in LA/OC and want to experience a system where the transporting ALS ambulance is in charge of patient care, this might be the system for you. You can ask me any questions, but, as I am not a recruiter and am not affiliated with two of those companies at all, I might not be able to answer them.

Just curious, do you happen to know why it is AMR shut down their Tulare Co. ops? Being that they are constantly growing and absorbing company after company throughout the country it seems a bit peculiar.

What other department aside from Tulare City Fire is ALS?

Also, is Kawea Delta the trauma center you are referring to? And does Sierra View in Porterville have any specialties? Our medical director works at Kawea, and I have seen a former doc or two that had worked in our county practicing in Tulare.

 

[CentralCalEMT]

Just curious, do you happen to know why it is AMR shut down their Tulare Co. ops? Being that they are constantly growing and absorbing company after company throughout the country it seems a bit peculiar.

What other department aside from Tulare City Fire is ALS?

Also, is Kawea Delta the trauma center you are referring to? And does Sierra View in Porterville have any specialties? Our medical director works at Kawea, and I have seen a former doc or two that had worked in our county practicing in Tulare.

AMR shut down their Tulare County operation because it was not profitable enough. There is a low reimbursement rate in the area due to the payer mix and they no longer considered it financially viable. It was sad because it affected some really good people. It was an extremely small AMR operation to begin with.

Visalia City Fire is also an ALS department. I also forgot about Dinuba City Fire which is the only transporting ALS fire department in the county but are in a corner of the county and operate mostly independent of the rest of the system.

Kaweah Delta is the Trauma Center. Sierra View Hospital does have GI, ortho, and those basic specialties, but does not have any trauma/neuro/cardiac specialties at this point. However their cath lab is supposed to open later this year. The ER is also supposed to be expanding and they are looking at adding other specialties.

 

[VentMonkey]

Good info, thanks. And greeting from a fellow paramedic from the neighboring county to the south of yours.