What to pay VOL EMTB's for Ambulance coverage.

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Permalink Reply by Larry Lasich on December 4, 2008 at 11:35pm

How long can a call run. I work part time at West Yellowstone Fire & EMS. If we transport someone to Rexberg ID or Bozeman, MT it's a 4-6 hour trip.

What level of care will be provided. If you have to intercept with an ALS provider, who gets the run charge?

Is your department going to cover the cost of your EMTs getting CE hours and refresher courses?

Good work on looking out for your people. Hope that the powers that be appreciate the work that you do.

Larry

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Permalink Reply by Kirk Allen on December 5, 2008 at 9:20am

Most of our calls are 2 hours. That includes the transport and paperwork. We only provide EMTB leval service. As far as the intercept, we would only bill the patient for the milage we transported. The ALS provider bills from point of patient transfer to the hospital.

Yes, the department is covering ALL CE hours and refreshers. Our tax referendum passed 3 to 1 to provide the service, which we are taking over from our Village. The Village basically screwed all of us required the EMT's to pay for all their own education then patted them on the back and offered them $60 per call......................SPLIT BETWEEN ALL THE EMTS that went on the call. Thats coming to a stop. On a MVA we might have 4-6 EMT"S involved which means they only got paid a measly $10-15 for the call.

I know we are all VOL but we also have to ensure we keep our service and paying them for the calls they go on is the right thing to do, as is paying them what they are realy worth.

Larry, if you can share it, what do they pay you guys for EMS calls, or are you on duty during those part time hours. We are all using a pager system so only show up when we have an actual call.

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Permalink Reply by Larry Lasich on December 5, 2008 at 11:39am

The department that I volunteer for pays $2 per response if you get to your station and catch a ride or have to stand by.

At West, the volunteers split a set amount of money, based on what the Town Counsel puts aside. The Vollies get points based on the calls they made and the time spent on the call. The points are divided by the total bucks and the Vollies get that percentage of the pot. Two paid are on 24/7. There are 2 Vollies that are on call to back up the two paid. One paid is a Basic and the other is a Medic. Based on the call the Officer could send a Paid and a Vollie to transport. If we get a working fire, we page for additional manpower.

Get some interesting “You weren’t there, Yes I was” when it’s time to divided the pot. I like your idea a lot better.

As an aside, do you also pay your firefighters for page outs?

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Permalink Reply by Kirk Allen on December 5, 2008 at 9:41pm

Yes, we pay our FF $10 per meeting, $10 per call and $10 per hour for any CE courses.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Steeves on December 9, 2008 at 6:27am

At my Volunteer Fire Dept we run ALS Ambulances. We run approx 850 - 900 calls per year 80 percent are medical. We pay absolutely nothing for responses. Pay has been offered in the past and turned down by the responders every time. The dept pays for all our training and certifications. We are all volunteer all the time and proud of it.

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Permalink Reply by Kirk Allen on December 9, 2008 at 9:10am

Chris,
We to our proud of our positions but as the Chief of the department I believe that people should be rewarded for their service. I dont know how many volunteers you have but if we were running 720 medical calls (2 a day) the few EMT's we have would be burned out. During the day we have no more than 3 and in most cases 2 EMT's. That would mean every day of their life (averaging) they would be expected to go on a 2-4 hour medical call. No compensating them for their time is just not right in my opinion. Especially with all the headache calls from the section 8 housing we have. People who are more than capable of taking themselves and with no medical emergency at all they expect us to take them. You all know the story as we all have them.

My point with the pay is that these people deserve it and I want to make sure they are rewarded for that service.

Chris I am glad to hear you have a group of people that are so dedicated that they wont except pay. I can remember the day when I felt that way, and on most of our calls I am proud to be their and have done it for nothing for years. But thanks to our brilliant 42 year mayor who cant find his back side to clean it, we have a 40% population in this little farm community that is on welfare/unemployable/lowlife/lazy bums. Its that burden that has lead to frustration of losing time and money from our full time Jobs.

We are keeping our Ambulance and will continue to provide the service all while ensuring our great EMT's dont go in the h*** doing it!

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Permalink Reply by Todd McKee on December 9, 2008 at 11:36pm

Chief

$100 seems to be a fair price as the companies around my area are @ $5 a call. How many calls so you do a year?
Todd McKee

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Permalink Reply by Kirk Allen on December 10, 2008 at 9:18am

I have to double check but I think this year we are at 60 calls.

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Permalink Reply by Todd McKee on December 10, 2008 at 12:27pm

Okay, I think if your budget will allow 2 to 4 emts to be on the truck @ $100 you should do it. One thing you may run into is that EMT-I and EMT-P may want to be paid more than a EMT -B. Most may not look at it that way but some may, nip it in the rear now. You would be looking at $24,000 a year if you pay $400.00 per run ($100 x4 emt's on truck), you may also want to keep in mind that @ $100 a run will the ones that don't make the truck and stay back get paid? Do you have a limit of how many people are permitted on the truck at the same time? What happens if you have a EMT go to the scene and there is all ready four on the truck? Would that person get the $100 as well? A few things to think about and a few things that I have ran into in the past. Feel free to contact me @ www.hazmatohio.com or my cell # is 740-507-9804. God Bless!
Todd McKee

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Buechel on December 10, 2008 at 1:05pm

In my department, (combination with Chief as only career member,) we run a basic ambulance, 2 EMT-B,and a driver. We run an average of 450+ calls a year, with 80% medical. EMT-B make $13.50 per shift, whether we have a call or not. We run 2 shifts in a day, 5am-6pm, and 6pm-5am. Our drivers make around $8.00 per shift. The department covers cost of initial training, and refreshers. We are on a pager system like many others in the area. If we call for a paramedic intercept, the Pt. is billed for the charge. As we have it set up with the career department that we use for intercept, we are still the transporting company, with the intercepting medics along to give and monitor their ALS care requested.
This may not be the best system of payment, it works for us. We EMT's aren't complaining. We definately have more shifts, than calls. But increasing the pay for EMS shifts, as well as hourly fire pay is being discussed for the 2010 budget.

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Permalink Reply by Kirk Allen on December 10, 2008 at 5:32pm

We have 7 EMT-B on the department and its a rare ocasion that more than two are available during the day. Our thoughts were to pay $100 per call for those that do the transport and $10-20 for those that came to the call but did not go on the transport. Other than MVA or special circumstance we normally only have 2 EMT doing the transport and dont see changing that.

Currently the FD will only respond with the Ambulance when its a MVA or when we call for lift assist.

I know a couple that might show up more if the money is there and I know thats not the reason to show up but some folks just cant afford to leave their job and not get paid.

Some great input to think about. Thanks everyone!

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