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A Light on the Darkest Days: Tony Cambone on a Career in EMS

For more than two decades, Tony Cambone has learned, led, taught and innovated as an EMS professional. From running one of the largest EMS schools in Florida to teaching in the UK and Guam, his journey brought him to New York City, where he initially joined DocGo as Director of Field Operations. Today, he serves as DocGo’s Director of Business Intelligence, applying decades of frontline and leadership experience to data-driven decision-making at scale. We spoke with Tony about what a career in EMS has meant to him and how those experiences continue to shape his work today.

Q: What drew you to a career in EMS in the first place?

When I was 16, my family moved to a new town. I wanted to find a way to get involved and meet people. I was working at a McDonald’s next to the firehouse in Pleasant Valley, New York, and looking across the street, the work there fascinated me. One day, I walked over and asked to join. I started in the fire department as an EMT and loved my very first call. From that moment on, all I wanted to do was get back out there. I had actually enrolled in community college for a completely unrelated field, but once I started working in EMS, I was hooked. I left college to attend paramedic school and fully committed to the profession. By age 20, I had earned my certification.

Q: What was it like doing calls while still so young?

Age is just a number! My colleagues used to joke that I was administering morphine before I was legally allowed to drink. It was one of my first nights on duty as a paramedic. Purely by chance, my dad, who still volunteered at the firehouse, was driving the ambulance while I was the paramedic contracted by the ambulance company. Working together like that was a surreal experience.

Q: What did you find most fulfilling about your role in EMS?

I quickly realized that EMS is very special. There are very few jobs that allow a complete stranger to walk into someone’s life and make positive, life-altering decisions in the blink of an eye. You are in a position where you can be a light on someone’s darkest day. The impact you have might only take an hour of your time, but it can mean the rest of a lifetime for the patient. It is a powerful and important career. At the end of the day, you are one human being taking care of another. It is easy to lose sight of that when you are a young provider. So, it is vital to stay grounded.

I was drawn to EMS education because I felt it was a good way to amplify my impact. When you teach other EMTs and paramedics, you can potentially affect an exponentially larger group of patients. I was able to apply my experience to impact the care of more people by teaching others how to provide care, and then training new instructors how to teach. My impact kept growing, and I felt more and more fulfilled as time went on.

Q: What makes EMS different from other fields?

EMS is a “scrappy” profession. Unlike police or fire departments, it is often not uniform, and is organized differently across regions. The structure can vary by state, county, and town. Teaching paramedics from different backgrounds all over the world was an amazing challenge. As a dean, I had thousands of students who would go on to treat five to seven patients a day. That snowballs into a massive positive effect on humanity. The more you teach, the more potential you have to change the culture of EMS for the better.

EMS forced me to grow up fast, but it gave me so much. I even met my wife through this field. My old partner used to say, “EMS doesn’t owe you anything, kid. You owe the profession.” I took that to heart. Thousands of paramedics came before me and hundreds of thousands will come after. There is a saying in the fire service that you should leave your shift better than you found it. I wanted to do that for the entire EMS profession.

Q: How did your time in EMS help you to achieve your career goals?

Becoming a paramedic opened many doors for me. I worked as a SWAT paramedic, a Critical Care paramedic, and a Field Training Officer. Eventually, I moved into education, then operations and now business intelligence. 

I think a career in EMS is great because it offers flexibility and a range of career path choices. Being an EMT doesn’t have to be a stepping-stone job. It can be a rewarding and fulfilling lifelong career or it can be a path to exciting new opportunities in EMS or beyond. The principles of managing an ambulance are applicable to every part of a business. 

Q: What did your time in EMS teach you?

EMS teaches that we are greater than the sum of our parts. Sometimes people in this field can develop a “god complex” because they see themselves as individuals who are ‘saving the day,’ but things really function on the basis of teamwork. I always say that Derek Jeter cannot win a World Series on his own – he needs the performance of his entire team to win.

My experience as a paramedic also taught me how to delegate effectively. EMTs can do many things, but they can’t do everything a paramedic is licensed to do. As a paramedic you need to delegate appropriately to get the best outcomes. This lesson has shaped my entire approach to operations. 

I constantly ask: Who is capable of what? How can I delegate to get the best business outcome? How can I empower individuals to reach the next level? 

You must always focus on teaching and leveling up your team. You are only as good as your training. If you do not have a good platform or standard operating procedures, you must provide the resources and support to build them.

I also learned that there are many ways to solve a single problem. You need humility to recognize that just because you would do something differently does not mean another way is wrong. I currently work in data and software engineering where there are a thousand ways to do everything.

Finally, EMS gives you “street sense” and the ability to talk to people. You work within business parameters, but you must be able to sell and communicate your ideas. I learned this by speaking to patients. If you are proposing a treatment or trying to win someone’s trust in a terrifying moment, you must convey your thoughts succinctly and persuasively. You have to be mindful of your communication style. Being able to switch contexts, influence leaders, and speak to different audiences is a key skillset I took from my time in the field.

Q: What advice would you give to someone considering a career in EMS?

Never stop learning. You may think you know everything, but you do not. 

Never take “no” for an answer and keep advocating for yourself, because you are ultimately advocating for your patients.

Don’t be afraid to fail. The first time you perform a high-stakes procedure, like putting a needle in someone’s chest or a tube in their throat, it is terrifying. You have to have the confidence to push through and take calculated risks to grow.

Above all, stay kind. At the end of the day, kindness is the core of this profession. The golden rule always applies. Think about how you would want to be treated if you were the one on the stretcher. I was once a patient in an ambulance, and it is unnerving to place your trust in someone else. Make sure you earn that trust.

The lessons learned in an ambulance apply to all aspects of corporate life. You can use these skills to build an exciting career, whether you remain within EMS for a lifetime or they lead you somewhere new. The only limits are the ones you place on yourself.

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Ambulnz by DocGo is an international provider of healthcare services including emergency and non-emergency transportation, 911 services, mobile health services, and large-scale special event services.