Greenville County EMS 2018 Retention Survey

Retention SurveyMonkey
Q1 How long have you been employed by GCEMS?

Answered: 112 Skipped: 0
Less than 1
year
1-2 years
3-5 years
6-10 years
11-15
16-20
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES
Less than 1 year 14.29% 16
1-2 years 19.64% 22
3-5 years 16.96% 19
6-10 years 21.43% 24
11-15 10.71% 12
16-20 16.96% 19
TOTAL 112
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Q2 How seriously have you considered leaving your current position at

GCEMS over the past year?
I have not
considered...
Not very
seriously
Somewhat
seriously
Very seriously
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
I have not considered leaving 17.86% 20
Not very seriously 20.54% 23
Somewhat seriously 31.25% 35
Very seriously 30.36% 34
TOTAL 112
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Q3 How long do you plan on continuing employment with GCEMS?

Less than 6
months
Less than 1
year
Less than 2
years
3-5 years
> 5 years
Uncertain
I have no
intentions o...
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Less than 6 months 7.14% 8
Less than 1 year 9.82% 11
Less than 2 years 6.25% 7
3-5 years 8.04% 9
> 5 years 10.71% 12
Uncertain 39.29% 44
I have no intentions of leaving GCEMS 18.75% 21
TOTAL 112
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Q4 Please indicate how important each of the following are in your

decision to leave GCEMS in the future.
Level of Importance
Dissatisfaction
with GCEMS...
Benefits
Stress/Burn-out
Schedule
Returning to
pursue furth...
Number of
hours worked
Approaching
retirement
Illness or
injury
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Very important Moderately important Somewhat important

Not important Not applicable
Level of Importance
VERY MODERATELY SOMEWHAT NOT NOT TOTAL
IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT APPLICABLE
Dissatisfaction with GCEMS 61.61% 16.96% 15.18% 3.57% 2.68%
leadership 69 19 17 4 3 112
Pay 51.79% 28.57% 13.39% 6.25% 0.00%

58 32 15 7 0 112
Benefits 42.86% 25.00% 14.29% 11.61% 6.25%

48 28 16 13 7 112
Stress/Burn-out 41.07% 25.89% 20.54% 9.82% 2.68%

46 29 23 11 3 112
Lack of opportunities for 39.29% 20.54% 22.32% 11.61% 6.25%

advancement 44 23 25 13 7 112
Schedule 30.91% 21.82% 25.45% 17.27% 4.55%

34 24 28 19 5 110
Negative coworkers 19.64% 23.21% 33.04% 18.75% 5.36%

22 26 37 21 6 112
Returning to pursue further 18.75% 17.86% 24.11% 21.43% 17.86%

education 21 20 27 24 20 112
Family issues 17.86% 15.18% 17.86% 20.54% 28.57%

20 17 20 23 32 112
Number of hours worked 17.86% 19.64% 38.39% 19.64% 4.46%

20 22 43 22 5 112
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Desire for a career change 13.51% 18.02% 17.12% 27.93% 23.42%

15 20 19 31 26 111
Approaching retirement 11.61% 11.61% 21.43% 22.32% 33.04%

13 13 24 25 37 112
Lack of challenges 8.93% 15.18% 29.46% 36.61% 9.82%

10 17 33 41 11 112
Illness or injury 8.04% 14.29% 23.21% 23.21% 31.25%

9 16 26 26 35 112
Moving to a new area 1.79% 7.14% 12.50% 34.82% 43.75%

2 8 14 39 49 112
OTHER (PLEASE SPECIFY)
Severely over worked and under staffed. Leadership is negative and there is no positive future for gcems without drastic
changes.
Burn out from running non-stop calls, frequently getting off late, running calls that should be referred out to private
services/nurse line, etc.
If the new schedule for part time requires night shift, I'm done. I've worked for 11 years PT with only one or two nights. I
WILL NOT be forced to work a night shift. I already have employment elsewhere and will terminate employment.
Corrupt management, “good old boys club”, and lack of protection/care for employees
Need for change in department administration.
Communication, unfair preferential treatment between employees, cultural awareness, poor selection process for
leadership, poor introduction of new employees, declining training program.
Maintaining Pride in care, through continuous improvement and remaining on the cutting edge of EMS. It might sound
silly, but GCEMS should be looked at as a “Holy Mackerel, you work there? It’s such an innovative and efficient
service.”
Benefits have been the reason I have stayed but now that the insurance deductible jacked up to $2000/individual, it's not
worth the added stress of an understaffed, extremely busy, poorly managed EMS system. Dispatch/supervisors have no
desire to get crews off on time or near time and this system always for minimal work/life balance especially on night shift.
The pay is decreased annually for night shift as we do not make as much OT and loose holiday pay hours that day shift
makes. Night shift is NOT allowed to swap Saturday nights but day shift can swap Saturdays. Night shift frequently gets
down to less than 10 trucks on the road for a county of half a million during busy nights (such as Saturday nights). I have
seen Saturdays with as little as SEVEN trucks on the road. It does not appear that GCEMS is doing much to rectify this
situation and will continue to hemorrhage employees until this is fixed. GCEMS also has protocols that make nearly every
call ALS but that places the burden primarily on 1 of the 2 providers as most trucks (at least on Charlie 2000) are
medic/basic trucks. Write ups have occurred for following policy as well as for something another employee did, but since
that other employee is no longer employed, the partner receives the write ups. The system is screwed up from top to
bottom.
Of all the above criteria, dissatisfaction with GCEMS leadership is, for me, the most important factor in determining my
current level of job satisfaction. other factors such as remuneration are also important but, again, in my opinion, changes
in administration is the number one thing that needs to happen if significant change in moral and turnover are the end
goals.
Too many EMTs are being hired. It puts so much of a burden on us medics when we're doing 85% of the workload every
day that we come to work. If we're going to continue to hire EMTs at least give them a contingency that they need to be in
school for their medic within 1 years of their hire date. This system is too busy for lifetime EMTs/Intermediates. That's the
reason people are becoming so burnt out recently.
This service has changed so much and the front office seems is to out of touch. This isn't the same as it was when they
were in the field. We have employees that no one wants to work with. Employees that seem to be protected. Employees
that treated and held to different standards. Every shift seems to be run differently.
I would appreciate a re-evaluation of the number of units going in service at particular time slots. I think Simpsonville
Post should return to a static station (busy area).
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The promotion process is a complete joke. Lack of resources with apparently no plans in the future for more units.
Underqualified employees.
Need new leadership (front office)
****Opportunity for advancement****
The leadership is the largest and worst issue at GCEMS.
Honesty, Respect, Help when needed, Supervisors making fun of others behind their backs, Supervisors who should not
be in the positions they are, Those who lie to make themselves look better
Not given requested days off when I rarely ask for it
This place has become a joke. The harder the field staff works the lazier the front office has become. Especially the
training department
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Q5 In your opinion, how effective would the following strategies be in

increasing retention?
(no label)
Social events
(Christmas...
Flexible
scheduling
Reward and
recognition...
Advancement
opportunities
More
involvement ...
Communication
and feedback
Increased pay
Improved work
life (Meal/R...
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
1 (not effective) 2 3 4 5 (somewhat effective) 6

7 8 9 10 (most effective)
1 (NOT 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (MOST TOT

EFFECTIVE) (SOMEWHAT EFFECTIV
EFFECTIVE) E)
Social events 15.18% 3.57% 8.04% 6.25% 27.68% 8.04% 13.39% 6.25% 2.68% 8.93%
(Christmas 17 4 9 7 31 9 15 7 3 10 1
party, BBQ,
softball team)
Flexible 6.31% 0.90% 2.70% 1.80% 27.93% 6.31% 15.32% 10.81% 11.71% 16.22%
scheduling 7 1 3 2 31 7 17 12 13 18 1
Reward and 6.25% 3.57% 3.57% 7.14% 17.86% 5.36% 9.82% 20.54% 8.93% 16.96%
recognition 7 4 4 8 20 6 11 23 10 19 1
program
Advancement 4.55% 0.00% 2.73% 4.55% 18.18% 9.09% 13.64% 14.55% 7.27% 25.45%
opportunities 5 0 3 5 20 10 15 16 8 28 1
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More 0.89% 1.79% 3.57% 0.00% 15.18% 8.93% 11.61% 16.96% 14.29% 26.79%
involvement in 1 2 4 0 17 10 13 19 16 30 1
decisions
Communication 2.70% 0.90% 0.90% 0.90% 14.41% 7.21% 13.51% 17.12% 9.91% 32.43%
and feedback 3 1 1 1 16 8 15 19 11 36 1
Increased pay 0.89% 0.89% 1.79% 0.00% 14.29% 4.46% 12.50% 15.18% 16.07% 33.93%
1 1 2 0 16 5 14 17 18 38 1
Improved work 1.79% 0.00% 0.00% 1.79% 8.04% 0.89% 7.14% 16.07% 6.25% 58.04%
life (Meal/Rest 2 0 0 2 9 1 8 18 7 65 1
Breaks, getting
off on time,
etc.)
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Other (Please Specify)

Hiring of less EMT's or EMT's who are in medic school or plan to be. Also, allowing for people to work with their
preferred partners more often. On most time slots, there are some people who really work very well together and
enjoy working with each other regularly. This is HUGE in not only helping to prevent burnout, but also helps in
overall attitude and motivation to come into work.
longevity pay raises
It would be nice to get off on time and be able to have 30 minutes for lunch and a mental re set. Crews are mentally
and physically pushed to their breaking points in an attempt to runs extremely high call volume that they shouldn't
be taxed with.
Increase staffing to fill the constant holes in the schedule and increase the number of ambulances. This will
improve the overall work environment for everyone.
Pay would be huge due to the size of our service and level of care we are expected to provide. Any future thoughts
of street corner posting would be a detriment. I think more individual shift training would help comradery, I've been
here over 8 years and I don't even know the people on my shift anymore. It's EMS there are only so many
opportunities for advancement, no big deal. We are human beings and not machines or numbers, and one
individual in leadership doesn't realize that, and it's not the director.
Double Medic Trucks - 10 most effective
Repeated and consistent negative attitude and actions from management regarding both employees and basic
responsibilities of their jobs being fixed would help.
sense of direction from leadership
Competent leadership = 10 / Leadership showing employees are a priority = 10
We are also constantly micromanaged. Getting rushed as we do our jobs. Any questions/feedback needed from
Steve Fitts go unanswered. 10-4 status checks stress everyone out. We are attempting patient care and/or actively
moving patients and dispatch is toning our radios constantly. Even when police are on scene our status is checked,
which makes no sense to me. If we weren't 10-4, who are they going to call to the scene? Law enforcement is
there... also, time to accurately check off our trucks at the start of shift instead of being rushed out the door to go
10-8. OST's don't accurately perform this task and off coming crews frequently leave trucks in poor condition for on
coming crews.
I believe the most important factors to keeping people are better avenues of advancement or promotion, increased
pay and or differentials for night shift personnel and also better deployment options for allowing crews to get off on
time. I believe the best thing for administration to do is care more their employees/and retention than data numbers.
To elaborate on the above: Advancement opportunities: a non-biased interview process. Stop placing people in
leadership positions who will do the bidding of admin and turn a blind eye if something isn't done fairly by admin i.e.
unfair write ups when something is unfounded. Reward and recognition program: we know admin doesn't care to
begin with, so why bother. The last award ceremony admin seemed almost pained that they had to be in the same
room with us and engage in conversation and serve food. More involvement in decisions: maybe start listening to
your employees if something isn't working. We got 5 brand new trucks that were configured completely differently
than anything we've ever had before. To my knowledge no one was asked for feedback, or if they were it was a
very small group, so instead they order 5 more trucks with minor improvements but still with no cabinet space. We
don't need a cpr seat! We need somewhere to store the bvm that isn't on top of other frequently used boxes.
Communication and feedback: ANY communication would be nice. Where are we going to go once county square
moves? There has been no insight on this and just speculation and rumors. Maybe actually inform us of any
decisions that are made known to admin from county council or the hospital as it’s€™s known instead of worthless
rumors being spread around for months with 0 amount of information given from admin. Even if you don't know a
lot just letting us know what's going on or the progress of something would speak volumes as to how much you
want us to be included. For example the pending hospital take over from several years ago. I think you all know
how lost we were during that year and concerned that we would lose our retirement and insurance and admin said
NOTHING and gave us 0 information. Employees had to go to public county council meetings to even be informed
as to what was going on. Also, don't put it in our face that there are 2 paramedic schools around the corner with
dozens of medics just waiting to take our jobs if we are unhappy. We're aware of this fact. Maybe be concerned
9 / 33
that we are unhappy and try to change it enlighten us as to why something can't be changed instead of saying
there is the door.

Bonus base on attendance, rearrange the of the static stations (i.e. 5 o'clock time slot rotates between Slater-
Tigerville-HQ) people will pick the most convenience slot for them and a late call will not include 45 min. to an hour
drive back home when you get off from work
Improved technology, we still have pagers!
Compared to several systems, GCEMS has a lot to offer. The fact that we shut a truck down (except for high acuity
calls) is impressive. Trying to have 26 trucks on the road is also impressive.
Make good providers feel like they are not replaceable instead of just another seat to fill.
Again, administration change is, in my opinion, the single most important factor in increasing retention and field
staff morale.
Make less work for employees, get us home on time, and show us we matter and that we are not just expendable
numbers on a spreadsheet.
Social events are very hard with shift schedules. Can't play any sports because of it. Hard when people have kids.
This was done some in past with competitions against shifts. Due to call volume and turnover rate this stopped
Special Teams!
The possibility of shift representatives to address concerns on behalf of field staff with quarterly meetings with field
supervisors may be a nice thing.
Administration has no clue what the field wants. They think new trucks solve every issue. Not even close. They are
just taking up space
The current front office is incapable or unwilling to do what needs to be done to fix our problems. Without that,
none of the above strategies will have much impact.
Guaranteed shift end times would help instead of unknown hold overs. Myself and others have had up to 4 hour
hold overs after outrageously busy shifts which then only leaves 8 hours to drive home, eat, shower, do laundry,
spend time with family, sleep, and prepare to be right back on shift for another busy shift.
Respect, Honesty
The lack of an in-house IST program has disappointed a lot of people.
Even distribution of work (double medic trucks or significant increase in truck numbers with basic/aemt and medic)
10 very important
Having reprecautions for people when they have multiple complaints on them. Instead of ignoring the issue
Training via IST
Too little too late. Management has been passive far too long. No one in management has any real idea of
conditions in the field
10 / 33
Q6 Have you experienced any of the following in the past 12 months of

your career?
(no label)
Injury
Job related
critical stress
Infectious
disease
Assault
Bullying
Decreasing
health status
Sleeping
difficulties
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Yes No
YES NO TOTAL
Injury 22.32% 77.68%

25 87 112
Job related critical stress 55.36% 44.64%

62 50 112
Infectious disease 4.46% 95.54%

5 107 112
Assault 24.32% 75.68%

27 84 111
Bullying 21.62% 78.38%

24 87 111
Decreasing health status 30.91% 69.09%

34 76 110
Sleeping difficulties 64.86% 35.14%

72 39 111

Burn out and lack of motivation
Anxiety
There is no time to mentally re set during the day. So the mental exhaustion catches up with you at the end of
the shift.
Running nonstop calls is stressful alone, but getting off late on top of it really affects me. Working 12-14+ hour
shifts and scheduled to come back in the next day to do it all over again is hard. I frequently contemplate calling
out just to rest at home. My sleep has been drastically affected, I average 4 hours per night but frequently get
only 2-3 a lot of nights. My back constantly hurts from being in the ambulance the entire 12+ hours of my shift.
Constantly picking up patients, bending over for patient care and sitting in the cab of the truck have severely
affected my back. I also recently started to experience anxiety from all the stress I’m under. My family/friends
see a change in my mood the day before I have to go back to work as well. I look forward to my 3 days off,
although I feel they go by fast. I think we need a more flexible schedule that can accommodate people’s home
life as well. Better benefits to include better chiropractic care would be nice.
11 / 33
No down time to recover from anything.

Favoritism
Marital distress
Same shit as always in a 911 system just move of it when we run more calls
Anxiety
Harassment
Insomnia is a long ongoing problem
The amount of stress at this place when it comes to not training, having to do distance learning that is scheduled
80% of the time I’m on shift and the total disregard for the field staff is ridiculous.
12 / 33
Q7 What is the most significant cause of stress that you experience at

GCEMS?
Long hours
Personnel
shortages
Mental demands
of the job
Not having
resources to...
Physical
demand of job
Violence
Other (please
specify)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Long hours 5.41% 6
Personnel shortages 49.55% 55
Mental demands of the job 8.11% 9
Not having resources to do job 12.61% 14
Physical demand of job 2.70% 3
Violence 0.00% 0
Other (please specify) 21.62% 24
TOTAL 111

No Redbull machine.
Lack of competency and/or care with scheduling. Getting moved out of a QRV station (the only rest we can
hope to get sometimes) because of those stations being overly used as bait and as the primary means of
filling open spots. But also lack of personnel because very few want to work OT on an ambulance, even at a
static station anymore because there is such high call volume with not enough trucks on the road to handle it.
A 12 hour shift alone can be overly exhausting, so why would want to get your butt kicked for another 12?
There is also a huge lack of fairness or consideration with scheduling, especially if you "piss him off" or create
any inconvenience.
Running mostly ALS calls with a basic partner, then being down multiple charts. It creates stress coming into a
shift with 4-5 reports still open.
Night shift
13 / 33
The lack of upper administrations involvement with their employees.

management
Sick and tired of being sick and tired. It is the same shit every day here and no end in sight. Admin doesn't
even bother making excuses for it any more.
Frustration with lack of direction, refusal to acknowledge or address issues like obvious disconnect, treating
people like inanimate things
Not getting to eat, but it’s part of the job sometimes.
The average patient in mind numbingly stupid.
Multiple causes
Combination of long hours, manpower shortage, and physical demand of the job.
Knowing that the Director, Deputy Director of Administration and the Captain of Operations do not care about
me (or any other field EMT or Medic) as an employee, provider or as a person in general.
I would honestly say personnel shortages however I do not believe that is the true source of the problem
rather it is a by-product of the real issue. I believe the real issue to be incompetent and ineffective leadership.
They place no priority on employee satisfaction and fail to realize that the employees are their biggest asset.
The same leadership has been present for many years and thus they have no way to say the problems in the
organization are not their fault. They continue to hire poor candidates, failed to truly express to county council
what resources we needed when the opportunity presented itself, continue to fail to allow employees to be
involved with the decision making process and fail to admit mistakes and truly realize our problems are from
their doing.
I honestly cannot just pick one of these. Personnel shortages are huge. As well as not having enough
ambulances on the road every single day. It doesn't matter that we "have" x amount of ambulances. What
matters is how many are 10-8 at one time. Sometimes I will look at the CAD in the truck and just say "oh my
gosh" because we are so short staffed. In a county as big as Greenville, 10-14 ambulances daily is ridiculous.
And typically have less on at night. All of these QRV's they have do not help us; it helps their response
times/numbers. We need more TRANSPORT units. I also believe the process in which complaints are handled
is ridiculous. Any complaint against a field provider is investigated even if they KNOW it’s going to be
unfounded or the complainant is caught lying/contradicting themselves. At GCSO people have to drive down
to the LEC to fill out and SIGN a complaint. We need to do something similar because if they have a legitimate
complaint they will do this. It’s stressful for a field provider to have to go through the complaint process when
they did nothing wrong. Also, when a patient requests FD for lift assist only, WHY does an ambulance have to
go? Waste of resources for us, we are already stretched super thin. Also, why can't omega/alpha calls be put
on hold while we are level 0/level 0 systems wide? I shouldn't be on scene with a peg tube displacement when
a cardiac arrest goes out down the road from me and no other truck is available for it now.
watching the stress the system places on the employees
Getting off late, running late calls
None so far. If any were to arise, it would most likely be mental demands and accepting patient outcomes.
No support from administration.
Increased call volume and decreased staff
Getting off late due to lack of resources. You can never run all the calls, why sacrifice crew moral over a call.
Incompetence of administrators, poor communication, applying resources to fix rainbow problems when
resources should be spent on critical immediate organizational breakdown. Accreditation is polishing the
cannon ball while the ship is sinking
Nothing Matters
Long hours, personnel shortages
14 / 33
Q8 Within the last 3 months have you been required to work overtime
beyond your normal schedule?
Yes
No
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Yes 42.86% 48
No 57.14%
15 / 33
TOTAL
Q9 If you were required to work overtime, how many hours in the past 3
months?
Answers vary. Not mandatory overtime but being held over on late calls. Information is self-reported. Run and review reports
in Vairkko to determine.
No one has said we have to stay longer, however frequent late calls seem intentional/come with a purpose. Static station
trucks almost always get late calls and it is VERY stressful. Towards the end of my shift at a static station I feel myself getting
anxious and it never fails, tones drop for a call 30 minutes before the end of shift. If it is a legitimate call then I don’t mind. But
calls that could be put on hold for shift change doesn't happen. Psych calls where PD is on scene, alpha/omega responses,
etc. It would be nice if static stations only responded to delta/echo calls the last 45 minutes of their shift like centrally deployed
trucks do. At static stations I can get a call up until the last minute, as long as my relief is there, no matter what the nature of
the call is. Also, the additional truck at Greer, canebrake, and south Greenville don't help the off coming crews much. Off
coming crews should be able to LOG OUT of CAD if they are driving back to the station and it is after their end of shift time.
Being available for calls even after your shift ends causes people to leave and causes stress for the crews. it is sad when
crews who frequently relieve each other get to static stations 30-45 minutes early to ensure that off coming crew doesn't get
screwed with late call... and it is understood that we would most likely get written up for taking a call too early for the off
coming crew, but we still do it because it’s the right thing to do. If GCEMS doesn't want to help us get off on time, we have to
help each other.
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Q10 How would you rate your overall health?

Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Excellent 13.51% 15
Good 63.96% 71
Fair 18.92% 21
Poor 3.60% 4
TOTAL 111
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Q11 How would you rate your overall physical fitness?

Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Excellent 8.04% 9
Good 55.36% 62
Fair 31.25% 35
Poor 5.36% 6
TOTAL 112
18 / 33
Q12 Please indicate how satisfied you are with the following aspects of
your position.
(no label)
Training/Contin
uing education
Leadership and
direction
Appreciation
and recognition
Advancement
opportunities
Pay
Direct
supervisor
Schedule
Working
relationship...
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
1 (not at all) 2 3 (somewhat) 4 5 (very)
1 (NOT AT ALL) 2 3 (SOMEWHAT) 4 5 (VERY) TOTAL
Training/Continuing education 45.54% 21.43% 18.75% 8.93% 5.36%

51 24 21 10 6 112
Leadership and direction 44.14% 18.02% 25.23% 9.91% 2.70%

49 20 28 11 3 111
Appreciation and recognition 41.96% 15.18% 29.46% 11.61% 1.79%

47 17 33 13 2 112
Advancement opportunities 29.73% 25.23% 35.14% 8.11% 1.80%

33 28 39 9 2 111
Pay 10.71% 10.71% 51.79% 24.11% 2.68%

12 12 58 27 3 112
Direct supervisor 8.04% 4.46% 29.46% 27.68% 30.36%

9 5 33 31 34 112
Schedule 7.21% 12.61% 31.53% 29.73% 18.92%

8 14 35 33 21 111
Working relationship with other EMS providers 0.00% 1.79% 22.32% 41.96% 33.93%
0 2 25 47 38 112
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I am highly unsatisfied by the recent selections for supervisors. There is NO plausible reason to allow individuals
who have little to no respect from the field, no leadership qualities, lack of operational knowledge, and less than 5
years or even less that one year of employment with GCEMS. To have an employee who has been with GCEMS
for less than 1 year, who does not even have RSI or QRV yet, who hardly anyone even knows of, and who is from
out of town and knows nothing about this county to be moved into a clinical care supervisor spot to oversee medics
who were far more qualified and deserving of that spot is downright negligent and is a slap in the face to everyone
who worked their ass off to earn a position advancement such as that one. Admin would be better off coming up to
everyone who's been here longer than 5 years and flat out saying "you suck, we don't want you here, you can just
quit now".
It is extremely frustrating to show up to training that is several hours long (whether on your day off or the day you
work) and it not be worth it. It is ridiculous to show up and be expected to run scenarios with improper equipment
(when we definitely have the proper materials (E.T. tubes, OB kits, etc.) and for there to be maybe 1 hour of
learning. It is insulting to show up to training with people that all work extremely hard and believe we are underpaid
and be asked to donate money during an hour long presentation when we were all looking forward to coming into
training to learn something useful. It sucks the wind out of your sails.
I'm new, so, while I only rated schedule a 2, it's expected and I don't feel resentment related to it
I would like to see some incentive for long-term part-time employees. Maybe something over the base part-time
pay.
There is ZERO leadership and direction. GCEMS has become stagnant and is no longer the forward-thinking /
progressive organization it once was. Leadership has settled on mediocrity in the areas of operations and delivery
of care.
We have one? Doesn’t seem like it ever since Steve Fitts took that position.
I like the people that I work with, My supervisors are very good. I feel that our system would be much better off if
out Upper administration was replaced.
upper admin is a joke
It starts and ends with Leadership. You can't BS a BS'er. Fake appreciation is an insult to injury. Make our jobs
better. Take pride in your employees. Invest in us, so we can invest in this organization.
I have faith in my Lt. And 2 sgt. No faith or respect in other 3
All is well on my shift for the most part. Big problems exist at the organizational level.
We don’t get paid nearly enough especially with the personnel shortage and the amount of work we are required to
do. We barely get enough time at the damn hospital to piss and eat, let alone get a few minutes of down time. This
agency is running their experienced employees into the ground and something needs to change and now otherwise
there will be no GCEMS!
I like the personnel in training but having to "cut budget corners" and making education the place to do it is
definitely a bad choice
20 / 33
Q13 Compared with this time last year, has your individual workload:
Increased a lot
Increased a
little
Stayed the same
Decreased a
little
Decreased a lot
Not sure
N/A
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Increased a lot 55.36% 62
Increased a little 25.00% 28
Stayed the same 3.57% 4
Decreased a little 0.89% 1
Decreased a lot 0.89% 1
Not sure 1.79% 2
N/A 12.50% 14
TOTAL 112
21 / 33
Q14 What is something that GCEMS could do to help you better manage your work-life
balance?
98 respondents answered this question. Answers were reviewed and tags applied to identify common themes.
Getting personnel off on time 22.5%

Adding additional staffing and/or resources 22.5%
Improving or offering more flexible scheduling 17.4%
Improving compensation (wages, differentials, etc.) 11.2%
Replacing administration 9.1%
The ability to take leave or get time off 6.1%
Breaks 4.1%
Reducing notifications 4.1%
Better communication 3.1%
Improving decision making process 3.1%
Having a vision 2%
Improving culture 2%
Comments
Not call proposing overtime hours during obvious sleeping timeframes.
Ensure units can get off on time or only get off about an hour late.
Hire more people, put more trucks on the road, and not have the scheduling department stress you out so bad over
asking for time off that you end up not even asking.
If possible give small breaks after long and difficult calls.
Set work schedules based on seniority, or set shift assignments at specific locations, fill open shifts with the slot that
is open instead of swapping to other locations.
A way to get off on time more frequently from static stations
Making training worthwhile. I would much rather show up once a month or every other month to complete training that
is worth my time and with my coworkers than schedule a time to sit at my computer and do an online course. Both the
online and the physical training do not currently take into consideration the C and D shifters schedules. It would be
nice if there was an incentive to be physically fit and healthy. Just by looking at our employees, you can tell that isn't a
priority, nor encouraged, in our field.
have sim center CE that starts later in day >3 PM.
More 8 or 10 hour trucks so it’s easier to balance child care and work. Also, there was a position listed on the county
website at animal care that did not require any specific training but started out making what an EMT does here and
had better hours. Why go through training as an EMT and deal with high stress and crazy schedules when you can
make the same amount without all of the requirements.
ensure that trucks get off on time
N/a
Add trucks. Work double medic trucks. Add BLS
Transport trucks. Utilize ALS fire departments to ease call volume. Return to hands on internal training instead of
online training. Do 3rd part promotional process.
-Actually recognize that their employees have families too, they are important parts of our success/failure in our work.
-Administration should do more to make this company cohesive and welcoming, family oriented/friendly.
Just fix the staffing problems and increase the number of ambulances
I'm old, I'm good. Lol
To keep maintaining my shift timeslot, and keep approving needed vacation times
Partial shifts are good. Keep that up or create more 6-8hr trucks
If GCEMS would do literally anything to manage that at all it would be an improvement. To my knowledge of all the
things we track down to the second regarding calls my management has no idea of any of these issues, nor do they
appear to care. But here are some concrete steps.
22 / 33
1. EMD is fatally broken and this is used to assign late calls.

2. Pull trucks off the road after 1 late call/shuttle crew to statics. Supervisors will do this for favorites occasionally and
it is obvious.
3. Dispatch repeatedly and consistently pushes crews out of the ER before policy dictates, at a time when ER
overcrowding INCREASES the amount of time it takes to transfer pts. To date all management has done is blame
crews
4. Lt Hughes daily open report is a middle finger to every employee busting their hump in the field, as is the policy on
this in general. Again, I have never once heard anything but that we are lazy.
5. No engagement whatsoever in career or education development from management. Anything negative they track
to the second. Anything helpful or positive radio silence.
6. Reports of theft from management if items are left on truck.
7. Inconsistent and cowardly management. What you hear depends on who you are, including criteria for promotion.
Management will lie directly to staff in easily provable ways.
8. If things go well, particularly publicly well, management will take credit and usually doesn't even think to recognize
the people who did the work.
As if they’d even try
Upper admin has forgotten what it is like to be in the field. The hours are long and made longer by shortages and
having to finish paperwork. Some of us drive distance to get here. By the time we are off shift and get home, there
isn’t enough time to sleep let alone spend with our families before we have to come back and do it again. The only
admin I’ve ever seen putting in more than 30 hours a week is the new girl. She’s at least trying to make a difference.
Just let her.
come up with better hours of work
Maybe introduce a short meal period.
Balance out the weekly schedule and not switch shift time slots as often.
There is not much that can be done for me as I am part time. But hearing crews complain it seems that if there were
more resources to take the weight off them, then they could go home at night and not be so tired. Being as exhausted
as they are it is hard to have the drive to play with your children, cook supper, or even take care of yourself.
Increase pay, days off or incentives
increased pay so that less to would be required
Unsure. Partial shifts for part timers are a great start. Incentive for nights and weekends would help fill the schedule,
which would reduce the work load for everyone.
Getting off work on time, more trucks on road/more employees, allowing us to use our allotted annual leave when
requested, CONSISTENCY/FAIRNESS ACROSS THE BOARD
Have the office personnel ride sometimes to see how much things have changes since they were in the field.
I do not expect GCEMS to do anything to manage my work-life balance, that's not my employer's responsibility.
GCEMS should focus on job satisfaction. When I leave my shift, I don't worry about GCEMS until I report for my next
shift.
Make actual progress and try to legitimately solve problems so I would not be so stressed out from work. This would
improve my work and home life. If obstacles are met and problems cannot be easily solved communicate that to
employees and keep them in the loop. THERE IS ZERO REASONS FOR SECRETS!
Reduce stress on field providers by all the above mentioned issues. Making sure we get off on time the majority of
the time is huge.
Quit pissing people off so that they will WANT to work here. When I came here this was the top notch place to work.
Now, nobody wants to work here due to upper management
Pay raise
BLS trucks
Be open to better hours and pay. Work on communication and retention.
increase part time pay
Development of ways to leave work on time.
Get us off on time every shift/hire more people and have more trucks on the road daily.
I feel it is up to me to manage this.
Varying shifts such as 8 or 10’s with adequate pay adjustments, increased pay so we don’t have to work 80 hours a
week just to make ends meet. Stop guilting us if we say no to overtime. I shouldn’t have to work 4 extra shifts a week
just because you have a staffing problem.
23 / 33
By not using the “because I said so” approach and actually have reason as to why a certain situation is occurring
Don't know.
It would be nice if our Administration was attempting to help the field personnel instead of what appears to be just
adding items that make more work for the crews without some type of good explanation of why we are doing this.
Can anyone tell me what my directors 1, 5 and 10 year goals are for this system. Really how much does it matter that
my Road safety mileage and my ESO mileage does not match. If you have that kind of time on your hands, man a
truck and make a difference. When was the last time our administration got input from the field supervisors before
they made a departmental decision. I believe the field supervisors should be the ones that have the most input on
decisions that affect operations. In the past with upper admin decides on something it usually shows how much they
don't know about the system.
less bouncing around of peoples schedules
Off on time.
If GCEMS needs to help anyone to better the managing of the employee work-life balance, they need to find another
job to match their lifestyle. Everyone comes to work here knowing that is a 12 hours shift IN THE MEDICAL FIELD!
Meaning that you know what time you are supposed to clock-in and you never know what time you will clock-out.
Provide a babysitting service. Or offer more engagement between coworkers and shifts. Um...
Better Pay (Though it isn’t too bad currently)
Approve Time off sooner than the month Prior
Stop excessive postings of open spots (Nothing like 5 texts a day to make you feel guilty for not working overtime)
Increase the number of resources on the road. If we added 10 trucks to the road each day, people would not want to
leave and we would have people wanting to come to work here.
Get people off trucks at static stations much closer to the schedule time. Being held over 3+ hours to take multiple
city calls with city trucks available is asinine.
Stop making changes for the "sake of change" with no consideration for how it affects employees or operations.
Add personnel and ambulances to match to population growth in the county
Hire more competent employees.
INCREASE PAY FOR SENIOR MEDICS. SOMEONE WITH OVER 10 YEARS SHOULD NOT BE MAKING THE
SAME AS A NEW HIRE MEDIC. STOP LATE CALLS. IT IS NOT THE FIELD STAFFS PROBLEM THAT ADMIN
CANNOT RECRUIT AND RETAIN EMPLOYEES.
maybe do away with some of the time slots and bring them closer to 7-7
Add more trucks
Allow occasional breaks
Get crews off in a timely manner. No truck should be held over past their shift except for Cardiac arrest.
Give the time off deserved! No communications from upper admin except about stupid weather announcements
Change the current administration for people that actually care about their employees.
Increase staffing
Working an earlier time slot without having to work a static station. Some employees prefer to work static stations
other prefer the city. I.E City truck more calls but usually gets off on time. Static station about the same amount of
calls but usually 1 to 3 hours late getting off. No one should have to spend the night at a static station because it’s not
worth it to drive home to be back the next day
Evaluate stations (especially Lake Cunningham) and recognize how often certain crews get off 2+ hours late.
Give me a medic partner at least once this year.
no suggestions
Flexible schedule
Nothing. I did it myself.
For starters, figure out a way to let us go home on time. I mean isn't 12 busy hours at a time enough?? Look into
refusal of 911 calls. Why on earth can a fire department refuse to respond to a lift-assist with no injuries BUT an
ambulance is required to go, even though there are no injuries or reason for medical intervention?
Worry more about the employees then meeting the "system" and its "statistics". System status may save 30 seconds
but the wear and tear on equipment and the people in them isn't worth it.
Be more family oriented and actually care about you as person and a medical professional instead of just a “number”
Less call volume with report writing responsibilities that are overwhelmingly
24 / 33
Pay increase would be top priority, aside from the fact that we were informed of shift differential at one training
session then when asked again an immediate response of "I don't know." before assigning us to groups. On top of
that, I really don't have an incentive to stay with Greenville, other than, financial obligations in life. I love patient care,
but there are other places I can do that too.
Actual give me time off when I ask for it. In past I've lost over 100 vacation hours last 3 years. Tired of it seems like
seniority means nothing anymore
Give static truck LOG time!
Overall, I am satisfied. I wish to learn more and obtain RSI and QRV status. At my age, these would benefit the
system and me.
Allow us to take time off when we request time off.
Stop with the petty emails from Neal. Ask gene to send one text a day THATS IT. Fix the problems on night shift.
From 315-430 there are only 4-5 trucks on in the city. It’s brutal.
Mine is fine because I have learned to say no and guard my life balance. I have heard night shifters say that training
and work related tasks done outside of shift work should be offered at night.
Provide appropriate resources ,strategic deployment plans , cut the response to non-emergent calls will reduce the
work load and general burn out
Everyone's life is different. At this point in my life I don't think there is anything GCEMS could do. However, I can
imagine someone with a family would appreciate a somewhat flexible schedule in order to work around child care and
other, daily family activities.
Put more trucks on the road so that I'm not completely exhausted when I get home and can do chores.
Somehow lessen the workload. 8-12 calls in a shift and getting off late leaves little recovery time before the beginning
of the next shift. Days off are spent trying to recuperate and/or catch up on what was inevitably neglected trying to
keep up the pace. More personnel, more trucks, I don't exactly know. But I know the workload is too much right now.
Make sure I get off on time, hire more folks to put on trucks currently shut down instead of constantly asking me to
work over time, and once those trucks are back on the road add even more personnel to add even more trucks on the
road to stay ahead of Greenville’s quickly growing population.
Stop asking questions that will never change anything
Get off work on time
Increase pay for employees that are considered a "Senior medic" and have their RSI and QRV, as well as years of
experience pay. Also upper management needs to stop nit picking on small issues like road safety and logging off the
MCT after you clear the hospital well past your end of shift time. Employees do not want to be at work. and that is a
serious issue and management needs to pull their heads out of their ass and wake up and fix the issues otherwise we
are all going to crumble. Have you ever seen anyone in the office show up at night and see what we are dealing with?
No you don't because they don't care. If they cared they’d be out there helping us when we are getting out ass
handed to us with the increase in call volume and see that there is a need for more units. Other services that don't
run as many calls as we do have more units on the road and that's bullshit. Why do they think everyone is looking for
another job? Plain and simple. EMS is falling apart and it sucks. When I started I loved coming to work and everyone
around me loved being an employee for GCEMS. Now GCEMS is the laughing stalk of the area and nobody gets
respect
Get off on time.
Replace all mgt. Capt. Level and above.
Come up with a vision for gcems and communicated to the employees
Increased staffing
Quit bumping people from static stations and qrv's who won't do overtime. That is our "rest time" as the static stations
are supposed to be easier on call volume.
Put more trucks and medics on the road.
An increase in field personnel, especially medics. As you may know there is a significant lack of employees. Even
when we are "fully staffed" there are a high number of basic/AEMTs compared to that of a working medic. It seems
that the department has kept the same number of trucks, or less, on the road. This number has remained the same
but the number of double medic trucks has decreased. You cannot expect a medic to preform to the best of their
ability running 6-10 ALS calls within a 12 hour period AND continue to improve your retention rate. Medics are
becoming burnt out before their first year is up.
Add this problem to a normal stress in a day of any EMT/Medic and you come out with high stress, lack of rest, and
negative behaviors. These outcomes could in turn lead to the employee seeking employment elsewhere or a different
career path.
25 / 33
Help with getting off work on-time. I.e.-not available for calls after you’re off time when you are trying to make it back
to HQ or a static station.
Not require employees to ask off 6 months in advance to get a day off.
unsure
Try harder to get static station crews off on time
Not sending out 4 texts a day asking for coverage, or when asked directly if I can work and I refuse getting thanks
anyway instead of a scoff and dismissal would be nice....
Add more trucks per shift
Do something about late calls and I would love to come to training on set day rather than sitting at a computer doing
so called “training”
Actually give a damn about getting crews off on time.
Q15 In your opinion, what is the most significant challenge facing

GCEMS?
108 respondents answered this question. Answers were reviewed and tags applied to identify general themes.
Ineffective leadership and/or administration including lack of communication and vision and ineffectual 42.5%
decision making process
High system demand with inadequate staffing and resources 41.6%
Retention including compensation, benefits, and lack of advancement opportunities 36.1%
Recruitment including hiring poor quality candidates 8.3%
Morale 7.4%
Comments
Leadership. Most of admin is checked out. I'm not sure if it is resignation, fear, or something else. There is a
profound divide between admin and field, shifts, and departments. Communication is virtually non-existent.
Employees are not treated as people but as things. That being said, I believe that it can change if the leaders are
willing to change and are also willing to let others step up and make the change. I have a great deal of respect and
empathy for the director. He has the most difficult job here and has taken fire no matter what decision he makes.
Now is the time to step up, we need him more than ever.
Retention.
Personnel not being appreciated, given breaks or included in policy decisions
Getting county council and the public to recognize the value and importance of EMS so we could get more funding
to hire more people. I think if county council would stop being so greedy and let us keep even a portion of the
revenue we bring back to the county, a lot of our problems could start getting ironed out. I also think the biggest
struggle is our HR and Operations "leadership". They need to go. They don't care, they don't want to care, nor do
they have any desire to even try to do anything to benefit the field personnel. It's all about what THEY think is best
and less about what's best for the overall health of the system and the field personnel. Micromanaging from one
end, and complete laziness and incompetence from the other.
How busy the system is on a daily basis.
Personnel shortages, education reimbursement program, admin rotation to work in field every four months. Day and
night and not assigned to a qrv especially high peak hours.
Lack of staffing
Field employees have no hope to advance. As a young person starting out in EMS, I know my only option is to seek
further education, even though I love my position and the place I work for. There is no room for advancing. There is
no room to take a break while feeling stressed/burned out and do something different while still being a paramedic
(community paramedic). There is no incentive to work harder or be better. No one is proud of our administration and
no one wants to be a part of it.
Cost of sweatshirts for cold weather.
County government funding allocated to GCEMS.

Our high turnover rate. You'll never be able to make everyone completely happy but could start with giving the
requested earned time off. There needs to be something that draws and keeps people here so we aren't down
26 / 33
trucks causing days to be super busy. Incentive for working overtime shifts. Better EMT pay. Better communication.
staffing issues which will result in overall lower call average per employee
Retention
Economic growth and population density without the growth on the organization.
OUR ADMINISTRATION
Hiring and Retention. Successfully staffing the shifts with the proper number of ambulances and QRV's.
Staffing with retention. Greenville County is only getting bigger and we're not keeping up.
Communication and equality(favoritism)
Decreasing number of paramedics, high ALS paperwork load on one person
Management.
How about what isn't a challenge facing GCEMS? Stop with the bullshit. This place used to be awesome. Now it
sucks. Stop saying people come here for the clinical skills because they don't stay. Stop excusing the pathetic
response times and lying about how there aren't that many openings. Two or more trucks are shut down every day.
We know what's going on and how the truth is being twisted to make upper admin look like they are doing a good
job. Just a matter of time till it all comes out.
The leadership is paralyzed. I don't get it. You aren't fighting for us.
retaining good personnel since the department does anything like bumping people out of stations in order to fill a
seat
Increased calls for service with fewer trucks.
Keeping people on night shift. Need night shift differential pay.
Personnel and resources
Staffing shortages leading to fewer trucks on the road most as medic/basic. Leading to medic exhaustion.
employee retention
direction from leadership
Employee retention.
Bad Administration Personnel
Retention of quality employees.
1. Lack of vision for the future.
2. Lack of education of the "Administrative Team."
3. Administrators who are not current on the changing face of and issues facing EMS.
4. Fear of failure
5. Fear of success.
6. Fear of education.
7. Failure to build community partnerships
8. No strategic plan.
9. Not allowing/ encouraging employee involvement in planning.

LEADERSHIP AND LACK THEREOF. I say this as a legitimate concern and understand it will most likely be taken
as a dig. It is truly difficult to have faith in, trust or believe your leadership when they constantly create issues, have
zero communication with the field, and show continually on various problems throughout the years that they have no
idea what they are doing.
27 /
These acts are immoral and make it so that trust becomes extremely hard to come by. These exact attitudes and
ideas relate directly to the performance of their job duties. You cannot have effective leadership without having a
strong base in morals and ethics. The GCEMS leadership has proven time and time again that they do not
understand how to lead, are not interested in learning, and frankly seem to not care about the employees. This is
why a rift has developed between the field and administration and why it will continue to grow. Every past
opportunity, just as you acknowledged, where employees believed they had a voice fell on deaf ears. I hope for the
sake of the organization, those employed by it and those it cares for that this time is different. Thank you for your
effort.
Quality leadership.
replacing upper management
Retention
Quality of new hires

Employee retention and rapid county and call volume growth.
Ineffective leadership. Same players over past 15 plus years with no desire to fight for the employees and zero care
for the employees. In my opinion the street medics are considered nothing more than warm meat sacks to fill a slot.
If leadership runs off 10, 20, 100 they think another nameless patch will just fill in so who gives a shit if they lose a
few.
Shortage of employees/ lack of ambulances on the road. I also don't agree with the current Distance CME/training
requirements.
lack of communication office/field
retention
TRUST between the administration and the field. if this could be re-established then any changes in the future no
matter what it would be, can have a positive results.
Budget cuts and people in the front office being completely unable to communicate with field personnel.
The most significant challenge is that administration is just now recognizing there is a problem. We've been
understaffed and underpaid and overworked. There is no incentive for experienced people to stay. There is no
time in service raises and you're ostracized for requesting time off and most of the time it isn't available because of
staffing. I've had to find my own swaps for medic school and forced to work full time when from the very beginning I
asked about working a 36 on the weekend and a 12 during the week to get my full time hours and still give me more
time for school. It is absolutely ludicrous that an agency doesn't promote its employees becoming paramedics.
It is obvious that we have a severe staffing shortage. Which while I understand may not be entirely GCEMS fault;
our students don't even want to come back and apply to work here. But I also feel the disconnect between admin
and the field crews is more of a chasm at this point. They walk past us on the side walk with their heads down so
they don't have to engage, some even come through the front entrance of county square so they don't have to see
us. Bob is the only member of administration who is NOT included in this group. He routinely speaks to crews, asks
for our opinion on equipment or supplies and takes our suggestions to heart. But other members? When is the last
time any member of admin was on a truck or a qrv? They all supposedly still hold a SC paramedic card and last
time I checked we have a staffing problem; our supervisors aren't even fully staffed these days. Larry Hill filling in as
LT on Sunday night when he had to work the next day actually impressed quite a few people. A few months ago
Steve Fitts got in a qrv and ran some calls. He specifically came in late to run calls with some of night shift. I tried to
impress upon him how much it actually meant seeing an admin out on the call and helping, not criticizing, but I'm
not sure I was able to get my point across. Both way actions such as these are noticed, and lack of actions like this
are also noticed as well.
Management and zero consideration for employees
Complete and utter lack of leadership at the department level. Administration makes "kneejerk" decisions without
considering the impact on field staff. Current administration would lose a "no confidence" vote if one were held.
Resources. Retention. Morale. This county is in no way ready to respond to an emergency of any size. This county
wants top level people and skills but only wants to pay mid of less pay. They want top level reports but give no time
to write the report except at the end of the shift when our admin thinks they have time. We have a report writing
system that I feel exposes us to problems if it ever goes to court. When you have to pick the closest option to get a
report to close but that was not what happened or what the call was. If this system does not do something to reduce
the number of calls a crew runs we will have big problems. The pay needs to be adjusted. A brand new green
paramedic should not be making anything close to an FTO's pay just because they have a degree. Years of service
should equal degree. Experience is so much of this job. There is very little respect for the upper administration. That
28 /
is a problem.
adequate employees and maintaining good benefits
Employee retention
WHAT WE'VE GOT HERE IS FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE!!!
CAN YOU HEAR US?!!!

Implementing anything completely new! Old habits die hard! We still use 10 codes and signals! Has 911 and nims
taught us nothing?
As in any EMS system, retaining good employees, who seek to stay on the cutting edge of EMS, all while staying in
budget to keep equipment and gear top of the line as well.
Chronic short staffing.
Our administration.
Lack of personnel.
The need for COMPLETE leadership change.
Call volume, Greenville has grown from 300,000 to 500,000 people in the last 5 years. We aren't keeping up with
the call volume. "Level Zero" is daily and most days you just bounce from call to call. I totally understand it's
important to maintain an EMS system that is financially efficient for the tax payer but it forces crews to stay in the
truck 12-14 hours a day. Pay isn't everything and I've considered taking a pay cut to leave for a different emergency
service field. I love working here, great co-workers and supervisors, great shift assignment, dynamic calls, and
overtime pay opportunities. I don't put blame on any one person or "they" (administration) but we need to keep up
with the growth of the community and be proactive with recruiting/staffing.
Personnel and moral
No representation from field crews in leadership
LACK OF ANY REAL LEADERSHIP. IF YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE FIELD STAFF ARE GOING THROUGH
AND YOU HIDE IN AN OFFICE ALL DAY, YOU WILL LOSE EVERYONE THAT BUILT THIS SYSTEM. IT WILL
IMPLODE ITSSELF ONE DAY.
Not enough employees, the last thing new and exciting we did was sepsis which was three training officers ago. We
have nothing attracting people to come work here. Pay is not the only thing but it would help. 10+ calls a shift
would be easier to handle if people could only work the days they are assigned and not have to worry about OT just
to get by. Also it is not right for a new hire to make as much as their FTO. This has been a problem for years that
no one will address.
Upper leadership does not care and is not willing to listen to or try ideas of the staff.
We need more trucks on the road. We are consistently at Level 0 and with all the basics that we are hiring the
Paramedics get hammer with taking most of the calls and don't have time to get charts done. We are getting tired
and burned out.
LOW PAY!!! And employee retention and stop hiring idiots! Get new admin i.e. Gault, Clark, Bolton and Miller need
to go!
Inability to adequately staff the organization at its current level let alone increase staffing to adequately meet the
demand and decrease the workload on current employees.
Successful administration change.
Employee retention
Personnel retention.
Moral. Field Staff do not feel valued and our input is ignored. When we bring up legitimate issues, we are brushed
off or never hear about them again. Decisions are made about things that directly affect us and management
doubles down on bad ones instead of acknowledging that their idea didn't work. The system is becoming a
basic/medic truck system with no process for ALS rule out and, by guidelines; there are only 6 types of patients that
should technically be run by a basic which has increased the workload on the medics even more than before.
These are the biggest issues that could be addressed quickly. Also, distance CME is a crock. I'd rather come down
for one day a month and get it out of the way than have to take 1-2 hour online classes at home multiple times. The
SIM lab access was a feature that drew me to GCEMS.
Hiring quality care providers.
Business and late calls
Moral
29 /
People.
Employee retention, hands down. We run people off too fast here. If people genuinely hate working a single shift
here, why would they want to keep coming back? If you want to fix the problem and the usual approach isn't
working, change the approach. This isn't war, but if it was how many troops would you sacrifice before realizing that
your plan doesn't work? Employees should be no different.
Recruitment because it’s hard to recruit new employees in school when the crews are negative and the students
remembers that.
NO leadership and this includes leadership from both admin as well as supervisors. Poor pay. Poor morale. Zero
teamwork. No training together anymore. No room for advancement or growth.
Quality of people within ems to sustain it appropriately
There are several. For starters, retention, GCEMS doesn't seem to be able to keep employees around. Most of us
are overworked and underappreciated. Second, I would MUCH rather work with older equipment and receive a pay
increase with a portion of our approved budget than to remain at the same pay level in brand new equipment that
doesn’t EVER seem to function the way its intended; i.e.: Wi-Fi in new trucks, monitor mounts that don't want to
remain locked, and a stretcher with "wings" that can't be dropped on one side or else they hit the interior wall. Plus,
no bench seat?! Or a CPR seat when we ONLY do CPR in the truck for traumatic arrests?
Moral of its employees. It is currently a very hostile work environment
Need more trucks and special teams or other things to work towards.
The population growth appears to exceed the growth of our system. It is sporadic, but reaching "LEVEL 0" is
becoming common.
Staffing shortages...but it hints at a bigger problem. Administration is completely disconnected with the streets and
writes policies that often adversely affect field personnel. Requiring administration to ride one 12 hour shift per
month on a truck, (not as a third man) would do wonders for showing both 1) an interest in improving the lives of
field personnel and 2) an interest in understanding and improving the relationship between administration and the
field and 3) giving administration the insight into the workload and day-to-day operations that I feel are completely
lacking at this time.
An administrative staff that is completely blind to what's really going on. Promoting inexperienced field supervisors.
A training coordinator who seems to have made his job pointless by actually not doing any training. We did a very
similar survey several years ago and absolutely nothing happened. No results posted and none of our suggestions
taken seriously. So we'll see if this reaps anything. The effort is appreciated though.
For GCEMS as an agency. They better hold on. Experience is leaving as I write this.
Administrative disconnect and inaction on the most important (and hardest to solve) problems of the organization.
Also, our dispatch system does not allow for realistic handling of calls. There is a real problem when most field
providers listening to the radio could better and more quickly manage assignment of appropriate and closer units to
calls.
Lack of vision and lack of support to field employees. No opportunities for advancement.
Adjusting with a growing county. Call volume increases with no increases in staffing or adjustment to growing call
volume. Perhaps the biggest challenge is Human resources as we are a truck stop where employees park their rigs
for a while and then move on within 2-3 years.
Incompetent administration.
Hiring quality people that plan on staying and getting them to stay. That pretty much means pay. EMS has always
been a "stepping-stone" and that needs to change. It's gone too far now and it's just a revolving door. We give
people experience that is otherwise unobtainable and then let them walk away and other places, such as hospitals,
benefit from it. Why is it a stepping stone? How many people have we trained, paid and supported through nursing
school? Why do medics want to be nurses? Easy answer, THEY DONT! They just want better pay for what they do!
Take money out of the equation and being a medic is million times better than being an RN and everyone knows it.
In 10 years here I've seen a ridiculous amount of people leave to pursue an RN job and most of them hate every
second of it. They miss EMS. They do it for the money. If we paid comparably we'd still have dozens of
experienced, competent, and awesome people out here in the streets where they belong. The patients deserve it
and we as an agency deserve the reputation that would come along with all of that. Let's make it so that NURSES
WANT TO BECOME MEDICS! And people that are already medics want to work HERE!
Personnel retention and expansion.

Poor leadership
30 /
Employee retention
Pay, advancement, recognition and the lack of knowledge from upper management about what is actually going on
Staffing shortages
Retention and getting off on time.
Employee recruitment and retention
Personnel shortage
Absent leadership in the administration. Supervisors who are not qualified to be in leadership roles. Lack of people
to run trucks. Hiring unqualified/less qualified people due to shortages.
Call volume
Retention. As mentioned above the lack of field employees, especially medics, has declined significantly. I believe
that GCEMS has now entered into an "ugly cycle." The high call volume in EMS has now caused negative
behaviors which are reflected to those who may have thought about employment in Greenville. That is easy to
believe and there is to be no blame on the employees who present this behavior--please remember your time in the
field and imagine--you are on your 8th call (majority have been ALS), you still have 2 hours left in your shift, you
have only ate small snacks because you have to keep up with charting, you have a basic partner, you are running
your truck with 20 miles until empty because of lack of time for fueling, and you have two more days of work after
this. The employee now has a sour mood--this is shown within your employees as of now and I believe this is
preventing new employees as well as shortening the careers of your current employees. The cycle. You want to
make changes to improve field staff experience, however, because it has now reached an all-time low there is a
strong possibility you could have difficulty recruiting and hiring competent medics. It has been said there is a high
number of EMT-B who have been hired--do you plan to increase the number of trucks on the road significantly to
spread the work load? Or will the exhausting pattern continue? There may be belief that new trucks will bring
positive behaviors, however, if you were to ask your employees if they would choose a double medic truck with
200,000 miles or a basic/medic truck that is brand new a vast majority will pick the bumpiest, loudest, most
uncomfortable truck you have to offer with a medic.
A large part of your current retention has also been because of the benefits offered by Greenville County--as we all
know this now ceases to exist. Granted, Greenville County does offer relatively good health benefits. However, if
your employees were transparent you would hear that a majority of your staff is "putting up" with the exhausting and
stressful workloads because of the benefits. Which are now a lot less impressive...
Possibly focus less on the statistics brought in by our patient care, accreditations that have not been explained to
your staff, and any other projects that will not have a positive outcome in the short term aspect. Focus more on how
to bring in more medics, increase trucks on the road because of high population, and keep your current, well trained
and highly invested employees, content and still on your payroll.
I believe that GCEMS needs to return to the basics. Happy employees, for the most part, provide more efficient and
better work as well as the spread of word for their willingness to remain at GCEMS--in turn attracting others to come
to your department.
Lack of personnel
Employee retention and upper management.
Not enough trucks and/or field staff to cover the county.
Morale, training, retention, and quality acquisition of new hires.
Increasing call volume and personnel shortages
Disconnect between administration and field staff. I understand we have all been in the field but the game is ever
changing and our call volume keeps rising with no increase in trucks on the road. The part timer moratorium that
was lifted was the bandage on the injury where admin shot themselves in the foot and either lost potential part
timers who left or kept folks who *resented* this place.
Employee retention
Staffing and not properly training the staff. The FTOs can train people effectively if we are worried about how long
this trainee will stay and MDE is a joke
Lack of decent management. There is no leadership.
31 /

Greenville County EMS 2018 Retention Survey

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Greenville County EMS 2018 Retention Survey

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Q1 How long have you been employed by GCEMS?

ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES

Less than 1 year 14.29% 16

1-2 years 19.64% 22

3-5 years 16.96% 19

6-10 years 21.43% 24

Q2 How seriously have you considered leaving your current position at

ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES

I have not considered leaving 17.86% 20

Not very seriously 20.54% 23

Somewhat seriously 31.25% 35

Very seriously 30.36% 34

Q3 How long do you plan on continuing employment with GCEMS?

ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES

Less than 6 months 7.14% 8

Less than 1 year 9.82% 11

Less than 2 years 6.25% 7

3-5 years 8.04% 9

> 5 years 10.71% 12

I have no intentions of leaving GCEMS 18.75% 21

Q4 Please indicate how important each of the following are in your

Very important Moderately important Somewhat important

Pay 51.79% 28.57% 13.39% 6.25% 0.00%

Benefits 42.86% 25.00% 14.29% 11.61% 6.25%

Stress/Burn-out 41.07% 25.89% 20.54% 9.82% 2.68%

Lack of opportunities for 39.29% 20.54% 22.32% 11.61% 6.25%

Schedule 30.91% 21.82% 25.45% 17.27% 4.55%

Negative coworkers 19.64% 23.21% 33.04% 18.75% 5.36%

Returning to pursue further 18.75% 17.86% 24.11% 21.43% 17.86%

Family issues 17.86% 15.18% 17.86% 20.54% 28.57%

Number of hours worked 17.86% 19.64% 38.39% 19.64% 4.46%

Desire for a career change 13.51% 18.02% 17.12% 27.93% 23.42%

Approaching retirement 11.61% 11.61% 21.43% 22.32% 33.04%

Lack of challenges 8.93% 15.18% 29.46% 36.61% 9.82%

Illness or injury 8.04% 14.29% 23.21% 23.21% 31.25%

Moving to a new area 1.79% 7.14% 12.50% 34.82% 43.75%

OTHER (PLEASE SPECIFY)

Q5 In your opinion, how effective would the following strategies be in

1 (not effective) 2 3 4 5 (somewhat effective) 6

1 (NOT 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (MOST TOT

Other (Please Specify)

there is the door. 

Q6 Have you experienced any of the following in the past 12 months of

Injury 22.32% 77.68%

Job related critical stress 55.36% 44.64%

Infectious disease 4.46% 95.54%

Assault 24.32% 75.68%

Bullying 21.62% 78.38%

Decreasing health status 30.91% 69.09%

Sleeping difficulties 64.86% 35.14%

Other (Please Specify)

No down time to recover from anything.

Q7 What is the most significant cause of stress that you experience at

ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES

Long hours 5.41% 6

Personnel shortages 49.55% 55

Mental demands of the job 8.11% 9

Not having resources to do job 12.61% 14

Physical demand of job 2.70% 3

Other (please specify) 21.62% 24

Other (Please Specify)

The lack of upper administrations involvement with their employees.

there is the door.