Curious if it is just a fluke where I work or is this common in the industry now? I previously spent some years in EMS, and came back after a long time doing other things.

Maybe it is just where I work, but previously everybody tried to capture as many flights as was legal and safe, now the med crews are masters at figuring out how to get out of flights, and seem to be unable to make the connection between this and why so many bases they have worked at have closed.

Is this common across the industry now, or did I just get lucky working here?

and they'll get you fired to prove it.  Most are local inbreads who have done each other, doctors, nurses, surgeons, police, and firemen.  A big tangled web of who's done who and who's doing who.  You are only in the way and another level of gossip to F' over.

Good Luck 

honestly there is some truth to this...in my experience a hospital/ed/fd calls a certain program over another often based on the extracurricularrelationships amongst med crew and requestors regardless of location or closest AC. Funny to see places stop calling you at the drop of the hat. 

Well you have one company run by med pukes so holding med crews accountable is a no go. 

Comes down to leadership, both yours and management's.  If you don't like it, go somewhere else

a bright shining star.  That was really useful.  not

Something useful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8z1Qh6N_YI

the med people drawn to helicopter EMS are generally the lazy and arrogant.

Fact is though med crews carry a larger load of responsibility than those working in the hospital.  Some find that is too complicated and go back to the barn.  True dat.

Same time pilots stopped wanting to fly...

Sea Gulls. You have to throw rocks at them to get them to fly. Also, they have been scared to death that they might get flown into the only cloud in the sky, or if lightning comes within 100 miles.

They are absolute PITAs when it comes to decision making a for the pilot, er, for themselves, no, they make all the decisions, even to go, no, to stop, no, a window to their world...........the vision of untrained and ignorant incompetence.  

There ought to be a law, and a formal program that allows them to realize just how much they interfere in aviation thinking.

Of course if you look upon their yap yap yap as that of children it gets a whole lot easier to just say Yeup, Yeup Yeup, ur right, thanks for all that (in one ear, out de uthah, and go about ur job. 

What Part 121 operator allows the FA to terminate flights? 

FA is required for the flight, and refuses to go, the flight will be canceled.

Period.

Most probably. But the flight didn't go. And if the FA had good cause, the FA would not be fired.

As a 121 participant I can assure you the FA would be replaced & the flight would go. After that, the FA would be terminated. Check all the 121 FA union contracts. Not one allows for FA flight go-no-go authority.

on your current definition of luck.

Spent 18 years (yes, 18) at a base where crews were masters of the turn down.  Management said no problem, I said fine, nothing I could do.  The base was a go along, get along, or go long right out the exit forever.

Pretty simple.

Pray tell is a spring butt ? Something you made up, makes no sense, and no one else uses?

Spring buck.  Everyone got that, why not you?

It's a non sensical word you made up, and no one beside you has any idea what it means. Got it. 

brought the non sensical to the table, no one else.

Or Butt. You said both. Which one is it? And what does it mean?

I said buck, not butt.  The other poster said butt.  Easily deceived, eh?

What does it mean?

Me man, google.

annual W2 by the number of hours flown for the year, perhaps only those hours on missions with a patient on board - love to cite that figure in reasonable company.

Well, having worked at a training center and seeing some of the pilots go through, maybe they just don't trust you guys.

At our program, it started when the med director went to 24-hour shifts for med crews. Some (not all) nurses realized they could work extra shifts outside the program, expecting to be able to show up at the helicopter base and sleep for most of their shift. "Banking sleep" during daylight for late night/early morning flights became a priority. Management concerns about med crew fatigue over 24 hours led to a policy change which said that if a crew felt overly fatigued on a shift, they could "time out" for four hours, no questions asked. While safety minded and well intentioned, some crews could handle five flights in 24 hours, while others would time out after one or two if it was after midnight.

It didn't take long before a small but predictable percentage of med crews shifted priorities from being ready to taking flights and doing their jobs, to changing out of flight suits into sweats, pounding Netflix, and settling in for long nap. The union, of course, protected the slugs. After a couple of years, even management couldn't ignore how the slack attitude had spilled over to routine daily duties, and reinstated the 12-hour shift. But by then the mindset had taken hold. Many of the best nurses and medics were fed up and had moved on, and to fill the holes, cast offs and lesser lights from other programs were hired. 

When you punish the hard workers and reward the slackers, the results are never positive.

Sounds like a particular company's CA program.