So Wake County EMS and Medic both use system status management ?
We use a modified SSM system. All of our trucks turn out of a main station and you don't return to the same post so it's not a 'return to your bed/meal/homework as you left it' kind of system.
That sounds like total SSM to me. no home base, going to call to to call, occasionally stopping at someone else's station to use the bathroom, etc.
At Wake, you have a home EMS station. There might be a couple shared stations in the county fire stations, but there are more stand alone EMS stations than shared ones. Your car is parked at said station, and every attempt is made to get you back to your primary area. You have a bed, lockers, place to leave your personal gear, etc. You can cook dinner or lunch instead of having to eat fast food.. Those were all huge draws for me.
However, every truck has AVL, so if you are closest to the call, you get picked. Re-locations do happen (but much less frequently at night), but it's not like you are bouncing all over the county on a regular basis. There are guys who are assigned a northern wake county truck that have never gone on a call in the south end of the county.
And in your personal opinion what would be the bigger agency? Medic or wake ? What is better ? (in your opinion).
When I worked in NJ, I saw guys get run into the ground in a SSM system. So one of my requirements when I looked at an EMS system was EMS stations were mandatory. I had no desire to be stuck in an ambulance for 12 hours when I wasn't on a call. I also didn't want to always feel like a guest in someone else's house. That knocked MEDIC out of the running.
I know several guys who are very happy at Wake, and their new deputy director of operations is a former NY medic. There are some dual medic units, but most are EMT/Medic or AEMT/Medic. It all depends on scheduling.
I don't want to mislead you: it's not an EMS utopia, and there are issues and chronically unhappy people at Wake EMS. And yes, some people don't complete the academy, and some that don't complete the Field training evaluation process, for various reasons. I can't speak for Charlotte, but the biggest selling point for me to live in Raleigh was there are 5 other county agencies within an hour drive of Raleigh. So if you arrive in Wake and find yourself absolutely miserable, there are several other options that you can pursue (and they all need paramedics).
Wake and MEDIC are probably the two biggest EMS systems in the state, as both meck and wake are 1 & 2 in terms of population in the state. They are great places to get started, but if you work at Wake and decide to leave after 5 years to work for another county agency, your benefit time (vacation and sick) and pension time all come with you. IDK how if medic is the same way.
Disclaimer: I don't work for Wake EMS, I work in the private sector currently and am a part time Wake County Firefighter.
