By Anthony Spangler
Star-Telegram
Copyright 2007 The Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH, Texas — A survey of MedStar employees shows that a majority of paramedics and emergency medical technicians feel they are underpaid and overworked and are mostly dissatisfied with the ambulance provider’s leadership.
The results portray a work force that feels underappreciated and disconnected from management, although a majority of those first responders say that they are well-trained and that MedStar is a good place to work. MedStar has suffered from high turnover and has failed to meet its goal of responding in a timely manner to life-threatening calls.
The Area Metropolitan Ambulance Authority board, which operates MedStar, was given the survey results Wednesday. Board members said they want a committee and a consultant, which is reviewing MedStar’s overall operation, to recommend suggestions on how to correct some of the shortcomings identified in the survey.
“I think we need to show some kind of response so our employees know we are acting on the survey,” board member Byron Black said.
Paramedics, who are medically trained to administer advanced life support, showed the most overall dissatisfaction in the survey.
“We’ve got to go deeper than the numbers and look at the comments,” MedStar Executive Director Jack Eades said. “We need to look at what they are trying to tell us. The purpose of this is to make MedStar a better place to work.”
The issue
Fort Worth has had to use firefighters to bolster MedStar’s ability to reach 911 calls in a timely manner. MedStar provides ambulance service to Fort Worth and 14 other cities. It receives about $1.4 million from eight of those cities, including $1.3 million from Fort Worth. The public support subsidizes patient bills, meaning higher per-capita public support results in lower bills for patients in those cities.
MedStar, which has been short-staffed for months, asked 286 employees to participate in a 27-question survey. The questions focused on leadership, communication, work environment, management support and job satisfaction. About 86 percent of the employees participated. Eades said he hopes that the results will help improve recruitment and retention.
Negative feedback
In the survey, paramedics and emergency medical technicians, or EMTs, who pair up to operate each of MedStar’s 77 ambulances, consistently criticized company communication, wages and benefits and said they are overworked. About 61 percent of paramedics and 79 percent of EMTs indicated that they are underpaid.
Most paramedics said they have no confidence in MedStar’s top management, with 61 percent responding negatively. Just under half of EMTs showed dissatisfaction with leadership. Paramedics rated the quality of communication with management as poor and said management often ignores employees’ suggestions. EMTs said communication with management is minimal.
Positive feedback
When asked whether MedStar is a good place to work, about 66 percent of EMTs responded positively, and a slight majority of paramedics, at 51 percent, agreed. Nearly 80 percent of paramedics and 62 percent of EMTs said they are well-trained by MedStar. And both groups indicated that they are well-equipped to do their job. While pay and workload issues brought down paramedics’ and EMTs’ overall job-satisfaction scores, a majority of both groups responded that they are satisfied with their jobs, citing personal enjoyment from the work they do in the community.