Elevating the status of EMS

[Guest]

I was wondering or actually to be more accurate looking for confirmation for the following. First i believe that the publiic needs to be educated on what EMS does and what they should expect in terms of the delivery of care. I believe for example that paramedics and the service they provide should be considered an essential service and as such should be provided by municipalities and paid accordingly. By giving parity with police.... financial/civil service benefits/job security the issue of a shortage of professionals will be addressed and hopefully with time corrected (I am not aware of a shortage of PO). So without getting HPT what are peoples views on this. Thanks

[JCESU 20]

First of all, "parity", in the world of collective bargaining aggreements is illegal. Even though it is used to arrive at the bottom line most of the time. Personally I have spent hours and hours talking to Medics and EMT's in my area trying to educate them about the CBA "collective bargaining agreement". Law Enforcement in the north east has spent decades fighting for fair wages and benefits. This has not happened over night. To this end the more successful Union's have hired top shelf labor atty's and lobbyists to argue their cases ad nauseum. These services cost money and require a group of people to step up to the plate and grab the bull (management) by the horns. All you need to do is compare the packages from this geographical area to that of a non-union area (particularly southern USA) and you'll see the difference and realize how important the strenqth of a succesfully run union can be in determining your salary and benefits package.

If you are a medic/emt and lucky enough to be part of a union that is not lumped in with other services provided by a hospital/medical facility you have half your battle won. The EMS needs to stand alone and not be judged along with facility maint., nurses, radiologists etc. You need to show that you provide a unique, dangerous (at times), life saving pre-hospital care that the commnuity can't live without and that it can't be sub-contracted to a fire dept. or police dept. and must be a completely dedicated service. And that the only way to get qualified people who are going to make a carreer out of saving lives in the realm of pre-hospital care is to negotiate in good faith and pay them a prevailing wage and benefits package that they too can raise a family on....in other words you get what you pay for... Do your homework and find out what different systems are making around the country of similar size and make this a bone of contention.

Educating the public is fine. But also educate them on the professionalism of the service and the turn over rate.

Sorry for the typos was running late and wanted to dropa quick line.

Rick

I was wondering or actually to be more accurate looking for confirmation for the following. First i believe that the publiic needs to be educated on what EMS does and what they should expect in terms of the delivery of care. I believe for example that paramedics and the service they provide should be considered an essential service and as such should be provided by municipalities and paid accordingly. By giving parity with police....

[Guest]

First of all, "parity", in the world of collective bargaining aggreements is illegal. Even though it is used to arrive at the bottom line most of the time. Personally I have spent hours and hours talking to Medics and EMT's in my area trying to educate them about the CBA "collective bargaining agreement". Law Enforcement in the north east has spent decades fighting for fair wages and benefits. This has not happened over night. To this end the more successful Union's have hired top shelf labor atty's and lobbyists to argue their cases ad nauseum. These services cost money and require a group of people to step up to the plate and grab the bull (management) by the horns. All you need to do is compare the packages from this geographical area to that of a non-union area (particularly southern USA) and you'll see the difference and realize how important the strenqth of a succesfully run union can be in determining your salary and benefits package.

If you are a medic/emt and lucky enough to be part of a union that is not lumped in with other services provided by a hospital/medical facility you have half your battle won. The EMS needs to stand alone and not be judged along with facility maint., nurses, radiologists etc. You need to show that you provide a unique, dangerous (at times), life saving pre-hospital care that the commnuity can't live without and that it can't be sub-contracted to a fire dept. or police dept. and must be a completely dedicated service. And that the only way to get qualified people who are going to make a carreer out of saving lives in the realm of pre-hospital care is to negotiate in good faith and pay them a prevailing wage and benefits package that they too can raise a family on....in other words you get what you pay for... Do your homework and find out what different systems are making around the country of similar size and make this a bone of contention.

Educating the public is fine. But also educate them on the professionalism of the service and the turn over rate.

Sorry for the typos was running late and wanted to dropa quick line.

Rick

I was wondering or actually to be more accurate looking for confirmation for the following. First i believe that the publiic needs to be educated on what EMS does and what they should expect in terms of the delivery of care. I believe for example that paramedics and the service they provide should be considered an essential service and as such should be provided by municipalities and paid accordingly. By giving parity with police....

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So better pay, job security, civil service benefits would be a direction that any paramedic would like to see for the provision of EMS? I guess you believe that EMS is an essential service? When it comes to unions and collective bargaining I have little knowledge/firsthand experience. I happen to feel very strongly that a service that makes a difference in life and death should be appropriately compensated, acknowledged, and part of any municipality. I appreciate your response.

[Guest]

WE ARE OUR OWN WORST ENEMY, I HAVE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS THAT WE ARE IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO STAND AS A THIRD SERVICE!!!! Everyone has an excuse or a reason ya know like "well we are a young service and we havent been around long enough" We need to face the real reasons. There are alot of people who dont want things to change, for many reasons like they wont make a profit or they wouldnt have enough job #'s or they would have to give up thier little fiefdom's they have in thier spare time. As far as we ourselves are concerned no one wants to take a chance and stand up and be heard can you blame them I mean it takes 80 hours at least to try and make ends meet so no one wants to lose any shifts, now i havent singled out any one but i am sure i will be scolded for having an opinion. What do you think would happen if for just on tour just 8 little hours if no one showed up for a tour ?? Do you think people would finally see us??????

[IzzyEng4 427]

The problem with EMS is people still think we pick you up, throw you in a back of an ambulance and race you to a hospital. Obviously we haven't been doing that since the 70's.

People need to be educated that we area like field medics / corpsmen of the military. The we can get specific with what we provide in the field.

[ny10570 745]

How is parity illegal?? It is a common practice in seveal cities amongst its uniformed services personel.

[Guest]

I was wondering or actually to be more accurate looking for confirmation for the following.  First i believe that the publiic needs to be educated on what EMS does and what they should expect in terms of the delivery of care.  I believe for example that paramedics and the service they provide should be considered an essential service and as such should be provided by municipalities and paid accordingly.  By giving parity with police.... financial/civil service benefits/job security the issue of a shortage of professionals will be addressed and hopefully with time corrected (I am not aware of a shortage of PO). So without getting HPT what are peoples views on this.  Thanks

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Education is imperative. Does anyone know why this service wasn't provided as part of a municipality from the get go? What are the towns obligation to the public?