So, you’ve been the National EMS System of the Year in 1984, you’ve had a “celebrity” medical director, and you’ve been mentioned in all of the national EMS publications, but you’ve rested on those laurels for years, gotten top heavy, are driven primarily by process rather than results, and have management who believes they can do no wrong? What happens? Morale goes in the tank, applications are down, and the new medical director is seen as dogmatic and arrogant.
The solution from so many local “experts” is to merge EMS and the local fire department, which only does BLS first response. Heck, rumors abound that the EMS union and fire union are already negotiating a deal.
We’ve seen the issues with urban fire-based EMS in Detroit and Washington DC. We’ve seen the mergers become a virtual catastrophe in New York and Winnipeg. But of course, nothing can be worse than the current situation, right? I seriously doubt that.
Of course, no one wants to identify the practical solution. Fire the EMS Director and the Medical Director if things are really that bad.
Offer me a three year contract at $120K/year and the ability to hire and fire senior management and I’ll guarantee I won’t make it any worse. Whatcha got to lose?
Don’t forget you need an experienced paramedic with a degree in Public Administration as your highly paid consultant. I meet the requirements in that I have a brief case, I live way more than 100 miles away from Austin, AND I have a funny accent.
I also love Texas and BBQ.
Although we’ve never DONE EMS, we can do it better than you! Treating a CHF patient is like putting out a fire, right?