FORT WORTH – The City of Fort Worth is one step closer to deciding the future for its EMS system.
MedStar currently handles emergency response for Fort Worth and 13 surrounding cities.
A new report draft was released Tuesday by private consulting firm, Fitch & Associates. The city hired the firm in November to analyze the area's EMS service through MedStar and assess other emergency service options.
On Tuesday, the City of Fort Worth held its latest Ad Hoc Committee meeting for EMS Services, where the committee looked at Fitch's latest report.
In the report, Fitch & Associates came up with four EMS options:
Keep MedStar – with an estimated cost of $3.2 million from taxpayer money across the region.
Adopt a fire-based system – with costs ranging from $10.5 million to $63 million, depending on system implementations.
Adding a third EMS service, with costs ranging from $15.3 million to $55.3 million, depending on system implementations.
Or using private contractors, with the average costs estimated to be around $9.4 million.
Fitch & Associates said all four of these models include the transfer of control to the City of Fort Worth and member cities, as well as consolidating the 911 communications center.
MedStar's Matt Zavadesky said the report comes as the government agency faces recent financial struggles with rising population and low insurance reimbursement.
"So, if nothing is done, then we have what we've been struggling with for the last three years – where we're spending reserves, money that we've put in the bank for a rainy day," Zavadesky said.
"This is much more than a conversation about response times," said Carlos Flores, councilman for District 2. "I want to stress that because there's also the workload that's being placed on the MedStar workforce that we're very cognizant of."
"We're taking a real focus on looking at the unit, our utilization, and making sure that that's reasonable for EMTs and paramedics," Assistant City Manager Valerie Washington said. "And we also want to make sure we have the financial standing to make sure we're sustainable."
Fitch & Associates said adding more resources to MedStar could improve response time by up to 5.5 minutes.
Zavadesky said the study echoes what MedStar has been saying for years.
"The real question now is, given all that transparency and looking at how the systems perform clinically, operationally and financially, what's the best, next step forward," Zavadesky said.
Tuesday's meeting wasn't the final conversation on this report. There will be several more Ad Hoc Committee meetings before the report heads to the full council for a vote. The city hasn't yet indicated a timeline on when that vote will happen.
