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Fort Worth Fire Department to take over MedStar
While the transition to a fire department-based EMS service will cost the city, response times are expected to decrease.
FORT WORTH, Texas - Fort Worth city leaders voted unanimously to let the city's fire department take over ambulance provider MedStar.
The new plan will make current MedStar employees members of the fire department.
Fort Worth City Council members say this has been a work in progress for several months since September 2023, making it clear it’s not a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Fort Worth Fire Chief Jim Davis says it’s his mission to make the transition seamless.
"I want to make sure the clear message sent to everyone is that the public should see no disruption in any way shape or form in service delivery," he said.
The fire chief is optimistic about the new EMS model that will affect more than one million residents.
MedStar, the longtime EMS provider for the city, will now be dissolved, and ambulance services will transition to be within the Fort Worth Fire Department.
"We are honored that they would trust us with the responsibility," Chief Davis said.
The change became official at Tuesday’s city council meeting with a unanimous vote.
MedStar has served Fort Worth and a dozen Tarrant County cities as the only EMS provider for nearly 40 years.
Now, more than 400 MedStar employees will be considered civil service employees.
"It’s not 450 new employees to public safety. It’s just 450 new employees embedded into the city of Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Fire Department to provide under the city’s umbrella instead of a third-party service provider of MedStar," Davis said.
Paramedics are set to be members of the Fort Worth Firefighters Union. Its president, Michael Glynn, spoke before the council Tuesday.
"I don’t miss how big of a day this is for the city of Fort Worth and the fire department. This is a big change," he said.
An EMS ad hoc council committee and a consulting firm have been meeting for months prior to its final recommendation Tuesday.
Councilmember Carlos Flores, who served as chair of the committee, commented on how MedStar struggled to stay economically sustainable.
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"Let me be perfectly frank. The landscape of EMS services has changed drastically. It is no longer sustainable. We want to commend MedStar and its leadership and its rank in file for doing a tremendous job to date," he said. "They have been fighting an uphill battle. They ran out of financial runway, but they did not run out of dedication."
While the transition to a fire department-based EMS service will cost the city, the committee expects response times to decrease.
Chief Davis assures during this dramatic internal shift that the level of care will not change.
"This is about putting two teams together as one and a quality level of service for the community that the city and the community can be proud of and send everyone home safely at the end of the shift. That is my first priority," he said.
The Fort Worth Fire Department is also optimistic this change will help with the retention rate of paramedics.
The transition will not happen overnight. It will take 12 to 18 months.