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Several fire departments in North Texas received proposals from AMR to take over their fire-based EMS operations. Evidently, alot of 911 runs that were not reimbursable suddenly are under the new healthcare reform and the privates are liking their chops.
Has anyone else received these proposals or is it just us in our region of the world?
Tell AMR to take a hike, they are a poor company, we have them in ga as well but they are about gone now, thank god.
But yes if there is money to be made then yes you can bet that the scumbucket privates will be hovering about like flies.
As I understand it, 23 "big" cities and metropolitan areas have been targeted by AMR for an "aggressive" attempt to take over fire-based EMS systems.
We gotten a copy of several of the proposals and, other than putting in photos of the city it was sent to, they are very generic, cookie-cutter in design. That, ironically, is exactly how they operate in real life.
Don't get me wrong, there are some privates out there that do a good job. AMR are money whores.
I think that just your local AMR operation is a "money whore". The AMR operation where I live is top notch. Management is everything when it comes to EMS. If management is competent and cares about more than just dollars and cents, then everyone is going to love their jobs and patient care will be awesome. On the flip side, if management is a bunch of selfish money-grubbers, then everyone is going to be burned-out and patient care will suck.
I worked for AMR in the Seattle area for a short time in 2006, and was very disappointed. Patient care was terrible on the part of a lot of people I worked with, mostly because they were jaded EMTs who kept saying they were trying to get on with fire, despite many of them having been with AMR for nearly a decade or more. AMR provides BLS transports for Seattle Fire and many other departments in the area, as well as inter-facility transports. We were treated as "ambulance drivers" or "body haulers," by the fire departments and hospital personnel, and many of the EMTs seemed to take it to heart. Don't get me wrong, I worked with some awesome people there on occasion, but I quickly got frustrated with the poor regard/care for our patients on the part of several people I worked with. I had been working for a fire department as a resident FF/EMT before I went to AMR, and during my time there as well. While at that department, which had a premier example of fire-based EMS, I was taught a very high regard for patient care and comfort. This is what gave me such frustration with the patient care at AMR. Sorry for the long post while I was up on my soap box, but I felt I should share my experience with AMR. I'm sure many of AMR's EMTs are good people, and AMR does a good job where they are the first response EMS agency.Quote:
Originally Posted by KanFireman
The personnel of your AMR operation may be top notch... but the bean counters at Corporate call the shots...Quote:
Originally Posted by KanFireman
My own experience with AMR corporate...
We once had AMR as our ALS and EMS transport provider. We had them because they bought out the ambulance company that we were serviced by, who bought out the company that came out of a merger between two locally owned ambulance companies.
I got carted to the hospital at a restaurant fire after a knee injury. The care I got was fine.... but when the bill came in...
They charged for O2 that was never administered.
They charged for the splint that was placed on my leg by my own FD's EMT's.
They charged for a ten mile run to the hospital, which was only 1.5 miles away.
They charged for a third person on the rig... the third person was one of our firefighters that was assigned to accompany me to the hospital.
They sent a bill demanding payment to my health insurance provider, to the FD and to me personally.
My Chief at the time had a brilliant idea... he went through the year's worth of incident data and figured out how many times our personnel drove the ambulance to the hospital so both EMS personnel could work on the patient, calculated the man hours and sent AMR the bill... AMR called back and "apologized" for an "obvious billing error"
My health insurance payed for the transport after the bill was amended to reflect the actual mileage, equipment and personnel.
I still received bills for the full amount demanding payment.
I called AMR and they assured me that "everything was taken care of"... they used the "obvious billing error line"... I asked for and received a letter stating that fact.
When I got a registered letter from AMR and a call from a collection agency demanding payment, I called an old family friend who happened to be an attorney. A letter was sent to AMR threatening a lawsuit for harassment.
The matter quickly disappeared....
I never worked for AMR, but for a related company with just a different name.
After I left, I realized that it wasn't as bad as I thought, in the field, but the management was horrible.
Aside from the obvious of being over-worked and under-paid, there were many, many instances when the supervisors or dispatchers wouldn't work with you or even help you out.
Many times they threatened to fire people for stupid things and when you would get into an accident, even if it wasn't your fault, they would suspend you and make you pay for it.
There were many people who worked there, and turnover was high, but 90% of the people who worked there were trying to get on an FD and I would say 89% never would.
The straw that broke the camels back was that management would not meet me halfway while I was in an application process for an FD. They said "come into work or you're fired" even though for 1 year I never had any issues with them. I told them to shove it and I quit. Best decision I made.