BUFFALO, N.Y. — American Medical Response, is the ambulance service that responds to emergency calls to a lot of places in Western New York, and it has been doing a lot of hiring lately through a program that has really taken off.
It just added dozens of emergency medical technicians to its force and has plans later this year to hire even more.
AMR's hiring spree began last fall, bringing new EMTs onto the force.
The company hired 20 last month, all of them through a program called "Earn While You Learn."
"Where we pay you to go to EMT school, and then once you get your certification, you go onto the road for us," said Scott Karaszewski, AMR's chief EMS officer.
Since last month, the company has hired 20 more EMTs after completing a separate 10-week certification program.
Several years ago, when AMR was Rural Metro, there were issues with response times.
AMR says it has been compliant with response times for two and a half years and that the new hires are not to address any type of staffing shortage.
"Staffing-wise, we always recruit, so we don't ever have a hiring freeze," Karaszewski said.
AMR says EMTs in training make $11 an hour. Once they graduate they get a boost up to $14, and they can make more than that if they have medical experience.
EMTs can eventually become paramedics and need to be skilled in multiple emergency procedures from CPR to how to administer narcan.
AMR has plans to hire 20 more EMTs a couple months from now through another "Earn While you Learn" academy class.
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