Sunstar made the headlines again…

Sunstar made the headlines again…

One local news channel done some digging into Sunstar and the comment they made...
The one I refused to post on my blog because of conflicting information being released by Sunstar. Well here it is...

Sunstar reported to the community after paramedic Livingston was arrested that "Sunstar paramedics takes our responsibility as a trusted public servant extremely seriously. Our top priority is always the safety and security of our patients. Therefore, we follow very rigorous standards and training to ensure that our ambulance professionals are held to the highest ethical standards."

Now people want to know what those high standards are and it seems Sunstar only responded to the media with a single piece of paper, listing promises of high standards and a zero tolerance policy.

All of this was after William S. Haynes resigned for amid harassment allegations. Hayes was an EMT and the media discovered he has an extensive criminal history with charges including child abuse and domestic assault.

Sunstar and Pinellas County has denied multiple requests for interviews. Pinellas County contracts Sunstar (which is incorrect) Pinellas County is contracted with Paramedic’s Plus to provide emergency services in the county. Paramedic’s plus works under the county owned trade name of Sunstar.

Why is that important you ask, because the county commissioner Ronnie Duncan said Sunstar is not his problem. He went on to say that “I’m not their boss or manager” and as a county commissioner he does not get involved with the day to day operation of Sunstar. Even when Duncan was asked if the county set standards that Sunstar must meet his response was I’m sure there are, but we don’t employ those employees, we employ Sunstar.

Now it should not be rocket science to know that the County dictates every action that Sunstar has by the contract they have with Paramedic’s Plus. I mean right down to the seconds required to respond to calls is outlined in the policy.

According to Sunstar's (Paramedic’s Plus) contract, employees do work in a county capacity with county money.

So you ask what happened with EMT Hayes.

William Steven Haynes was hired at Sunstar in February 2007. He was hired as an EMT (not paramedic according to media reports and yes there is a difference.)
One thing that was overlooked when Hayes applied and was hired, his criminal back ground. According to media reports Hayes has been charged with child abuse, domestic assault, shoplifting and driving suspended.

And all Sunstar has said to the media is they hold their employees to the “highest ethical standards.”

Several women, who wish to remain anonymous, claim Haynes harassed them numerous times over the course of a year. They say he wouldn't stop.

A Pinellas county emergency room technician told us, “He would text message me that he was masturbating in the ER bathroom., when I was working, and that all he thinks about is masturbating when he gets home, and that I should leave my husband so that we can have an affair.”

The same woman made a formal complaint to Sunstar about Haynes behavior, but she says it didn't help. In fact, it got worse.

The tech told says, “When he would come in, I would leave my desk and hide, and he would follow me. At one point, I went into the bathroom and he went into the one next door, and I hid in there for 5 minutes until I heard him leave.”

The question is how did Haynes get a job at Sunstar, Pinellas County's premier ambulance service? The company promises criminal background checks at both a state and national level. It is a service paid for by millions of taxpayer dollars.
The media contacted Pinellas county commissioners numerous times, wanting to know why a company they contracted with was not conducting proper background checks with its employees.

The questions went unanswered. Not one single commissioner returned a phone call.
A public information officer for Pinellas County commissioners claims the employees are not theirs, even though Sunstar paramedics perform a county service for residents. Which the county spends millions of tax dollars to have this service.

The media tried numerous times to talk with Haynes himself, but he avoided our cameras. We did catch up with his wife. She denied any wrongdoing on her husband's part.

We asked Haynes' wife, “Do you know why Sunstar would even hire him? He has a long criminal rap sheet that includes child abuse, domestic abuse, suspended license?”
She responded by saying, “Uh, well, if you guys did your homework, you'd know that… none of that was... I don't even know what to say to you guys... that's crazy, alright bye!”

Haynes has since resigned, after two women filed restraining orders against him, alleging stalking and dangerous behavior. At this time, he is not offering a statement, but says he may change his mind.




So the questions remain, what are the highest ethical standards that Paramedic’s plus hold there employees accountable for?

Paramedics Plus was even against a policy manual when they took over Sunstar and recently added a policy manual to assist with receiving accreditations.

Yet not one single employee has been able to discuss what high ethical training they received when they were hired by Paramedic’s Plus other than what they were told in orientation and was basic company standards of doing the right thing, they had an acronym to run the entire company with... Star Care and not many employees could even tell you what Star Care means.

Sunstar also elected to bring in a consultant “Mike” to teach the company the meaning of Star Care. However, it was not even a required training event for employees. Most FTO’S and Supervisors would attend the classes as they were required to attend or people trying to promote within the company would be there. Other than that employees would hear Star Care in orientation and most likely never even see the acronym again. Accoring to "Mike" the entire Star Care policy was very flexible and could adapt to any situation as long as the employee done the right thing. Questions to Mike were how does a new employee know what the right thing is if there is no policy to dictate what is the right thing? He had no response.

One other interesting little bit of information is how the County Commissioners now claim they have nothing to do with Sunstar, however, when they do good and receive awards the County is all over that claiming this is our ambulance service and they only hire the best to provide services to the citizens in Pinellas County. The second there is ever any bad publicity they deny everything to do with Sunstar. Funny how that happens.

Now I was not going to report on this but after hearing some union officials talking about wanting a class action law suit against the media for this report, I had to say something. The media has asked several questions that we the people of the county should be entitled too and now the employees want to sue.

Some of the paramedics claim the news report was saying everyone at Sunstar was a criminal; however, the entire point to the story (in my opinion) reported was what high standards do they have in place to actually ensure the safety and security of patients being treated by Sunstar paramedics and EMTS.

Since Sunstar is funded by the county why can Sunstar withhold information on any employee. The media has requested copies of every employees criminal background check and of course Paramedic's Plus (Sunstar) has refused to comply with that request. According to a new report on line since they are a county employee their employee files are public records.

It’s also interesting to hear current employees say that the management of Sunstar lives in a dream world, they think everything is great there, but they never come downstairs to find out. Just for those that don’t know all of the second floor at the Sunstar building is administration. Some employees went on to call certain managers by name and said they are the downfall of Sunstar, Sunstar has the potential to be the best of the best but the managers destroy any chance of that ever happening.