Cities with single function medics

[marbuckle]

Hey, I hope this is the right forum to be posting my question. I'm currently in paramedic school and I'm trying to get ahead of the game for when I'm finished. I am looking for metros that have EMS agency running the medical calls, like NY, Boston, Denver.. I'm from southern california, LAFD and LACoFD run the medicals here and of course I will go to the FD when I get hired (as that is my goal), but I'm looking for a single function job for some good experience as a medic.

[johnsonizzle]

Im in MD, about an hour outside of DC and Baltimore. I only know of 1 county in MD that has a dedicated EMS service and it is only for a portion of the county, with the rest being supplemented by volunteer stations.

Other than that, around here you would have to look in the private critical care transport sector to find a dedicated medic job. Its funny because thats the exact conversation I had with my chief at lunch today... Im in medic school too. Good luck!!

[charlie82]

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[rbbehemoth]

In Socal you will pretty much always be responding with fire, so you might not be first on scene but you can still get good experience working for a private ambulance that provides ALS transports. I don't know about LA or OC, but in san diego county ALS private ambos are used. AMR is the ALS component for Chula Vista Fire (I think CVFD is all BLS), La Mesa, and El Cajon. Rural/Metro provides ALS transports for San Diego City, Encinitas FD, and Rancho santa fe protection district.

[csBlaZe97]

Chicago runs ALS separately.... The FFs are EMT-Basics...

I dont know how it works exactly but I was told you can transfer from medic to FF in CFD after a few years. Not sure if you can work both jobs right away....

I may do something like that....

[jklm128]

Jersey is your best bet. The entire system here is that ALS medic units are hospital based and they cover a wide aray of areas. The medic school i went to was based out of Jersey City Medical Center and my experiences are high call volume, full spectrum of calls, 4 medic units for an entire county. If you want experience go to jersey, you will run ALS, and only ALS calls. There is a large sum of employees there that also ride with FDNY EMS as well, you can challenge and gain dual reciprocity if you wish to go that route as well. Mind you its only P and not I

[rbbehemoth]

[QUOTE=csBlaZe97;1097322]Chicago runs ALS separately.... The FFs are EMT-Basics... QUOTE]


Chicago has ALS engine companies, approx 60 ALS ambulances (single role medics I think) and a dozen or so BLS ambulances staffed by FF/EMT's. This is info from firefightingnews.com This info could be outdated I don't know when it was updated

[marbuckle]

Thanks all for your responses. this is good info so far. The prospects are grim in southern cal, I know people from previous classes that are having a difficult time finding jobs, some are even taking BLS jobs, which is why I'm looking to relocate when I'm done.