Please take my survey........................ .................

[firemedichunter]

Hey, guys, my name is Justin and I live in Oklahoma City. I am doing a project for school and could use y'alls help. Please take my survey.....if possible please fill out as many of the "why" sections as possible. I need as many people from across the country to give honest opinions as EMS systems are different everywhere we go.....thanks so much to those that take the survey.

I have posted this on a few other forums with lots of good feedback. I am also open to any opinions you have on here,,,,,,thanks!


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

[DeputyMarshal]

You might want to rethink your survey. You've lumped a whole lot of different service types into "3rd Service." You essentially just have Fire based EMS versus "everything else."

* police based EMS
* 3rd agency government operated EMS
* hybrid government/volunteer/private EMS
* community volunteer based EMS
* private for-profit EMS
* private non-profit EMS

I'm sure I've missed other alternatives...

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

There are no "y'alls" here...

[JayDudley]

Y'alls

Obviously you've never been to Texas....

[Capt387]

Obviously you've never been to Texas....

Or anywhere else south of Yankee ville Y'alls come from places that serve sweet tea, not tea with a package of sweetener

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

I've been to Texas... transferring to connecting flights out of Houston and DFW...

[firemedichunter]

You might want to rethink your survey. You've lumped a whole lot of different service types into "3rd Service." You essentially just have Fire based EMS versus "everything else."

* police based EMS
* 3rd agency government operated EMS
* hybrid government/volunteer/private EMS
* community volunteer based EMS
* private for-profit EMS
* private non-profit EMS

I'm sure I've missed other alternatives...

You make a good point but, for the purposes of the survey and the project, I will only be looking at fire transport vs. private for-profit EMS. It might be easy to say that this is not fair as there are more options besides just FD vs private however, #1 this is the most common comparison in metro areas across this country that are debating this topic right now and #2 a study can function just fine comparing only 2 options when there are several others to choose from.

[firemedichunter]

Thanks so much to those that have already taken the survey. Your replies are giving me extremely valuable information.

[LVFD301]

I've been to Texas... transferring to connecting flights out of Houston and DFW...

See, we ship you carpetbaggers back north pretty quick down here!

[MarcusKspn]

Call be paranoid, but I smell a fake.

Oklahoma City has a private-for-profit ambulance provider, EMSA (Emergency Medical Services Authority). EMSA is actually a "non-profit" provider, with staffing and billing handleded by a for-profit sub-contractor. They also receive payments from the cities they serve in the greater metropolitan area for providing the service.

Every few years Oklahoma City has the option of reviewing the status of the agreement with EMSA and decide if they want to keep the current model or turn it over to the fire department. Currently such a review is in progress.

Given the fact that the review is currently in progress, and after looking at the survey and thinking about the way the questions are written and the wording that is used, I honestly suspect that we may not be given the real story here.

Sorry if you are truly just a student who may be doing a research project, but this smells fishy.

[firemedichunter]

Sorry if you are truly just a student who may be doing a research project, but this smells fishy.

HAHA! I can see the connection there but I can assure you I do not have any ulterior motive. I actually was once employed with EMSA as well as their sister company in St Pete, FL called Sunstar (part-time). They are both authorities as you mentioned and they both contract out to Paramedics Plus, Inc. I can assure you that EMSA/Paramedics Plus is 100% for-profit. Anyway, I just moved here to OKC from St Pete but I am still a student at St Petersburg College. This is a bachelor program called Public Safety Administration with an emphasis on EMS. I graduate in December and this is my final project. Oddly enough, I was NOT allowed to choose my research topic.

For full disclosure......I am now a full-time EMS instructor and work part-time for a hospital-based non-profit EMS agency in Norman called EMSSTAT. I was a firefighter/paramedic in Florida for 7 years prior to moving to OKC.....so I have seen EMS from many viewpoints and I am not particularly biased towards any one system. The purpose of the survey is to help me explore other avenues of information as well as provide a substantial subjective viewpoint of EMS professionals around the country.

[MarcusKspn]

HAHA! I can see the connection there but I can assure you I do not have any ulterior motive. I actually was once employed with EMSA as well as their sister company in St Pete, FL called Sunstar (part-time). They are both authorities as you mentioned and they both contract out to Paramedics Plus, Inc. I can assure you that EMSA/Paramedics Plus is 100% for-profit. Anyway, I just moved here to OKC from St Pete but I am still a student at St Petersburg College. This is a bachelor program called Public Safety Administration with an emphasis on EMS. I graduate in December and this is my final project. Oddly enough, I was NOT allowed to choose my research topic.

For full disclosure......I am now a full-time EMS instructor and work part-time for a hospital-based non-profit EMS agency in Norman called EMSSTAT. I was a firefighter/paramedic in Florida for 7 years prior to moving to OKC.....so I have seen EMS from many viewpoints and I am not particularly biased towards any one system. The purpose of the survey is to help me explore other avenues of information as well as provide a substantial subjective viewpoint of EMS professionals around the country.

Good disclosure, you are probably familiar with the issues between Oklahoma City/OKC FD/EMSA then. I've worked for EMSA in the past as well. Between all the parties involved you can probably understand my feeling that backhanded information gathering would not be that surprising. I would have no problem with any of the parties collecting this data, as long as they are honest with who is collecting it and why. I do feel better about the survey now.

[MarcusKspn]

Seperate question:

Is Sunstar the company that had the "backing incident" that resulted in the strict policy at Paramedics Plus requiring somebody to back you up all the time?

[firemedichunter]

Seperate question:

Is Sunstar the company that had the "backing incident" that resulted in the strict policy at Paramedics Plus requiring somebody to back you up all the time?

Sort of......the backing policies for all EMS/FD agencies are a no-brainer.....it costs a lot of money well people constantly back into things......

Sunstar had a problem once when an EMT drove around the corner of headquarters too fast and ran over and killed a materials employee......that prompted lots of stop signs and 5 mph speed limits at headquarters

[snowball]

Survey taken. Good luck to you.