Seven months after voting to begin dissolving MedStar and create its own fire-based EMS system, the Fort Worth City Council officially has managerial control of the region’s longtime emergency medical services provider.
At their Dec. 10 meeting, council members voted on a slew of items related to the transition. Chief among them was a resolution authorizing the city manager’s office to manage MedStar’s day-to-day operations during the transition period.
That resolution was made possible by other Tarrant County cities — which are currently being served by MedStar — negotiating service agreements with Fort Worth. The majority of cities have signed an agreement at this point, and the city expects to get the final agreements shortly.
The cities who sign the agreements will receive EMS services from Fort Worth, with costs dependent on how much time Fort Worth ambulances spend responding to calls in their jurisdictions. The transition to a new fire-based system is expected to move forward in July; the resolution is an interim measure ahead of that switch.
Council members also approved the creation of a new city department, the Office of Medical Director. The department will be headed up by a medical director, reporting directly to the city manager and responsible for providing independent medical direction and oversight for Fort Worth’s EMS system.
An existing Office of the Medical Director currently provides oversight to MedStar and various city fire departments across the county. The creation of the new department within Fort Worth’s governance structure will ensure that independent oversight continues past the transition period.
The council also enshrined two advisory boards: the EMS Advisory Board and the Medical Control Advisory Board. They will provide guidance on EMS issues, similar to the existing advisory boards — the First Responder Advisory Board and the Emergency Physicians Advisory Board.
The moves come as Fort Worth nears an agreement with the union representing its fire department employees over how to amend its collective bargaining agreement to account for incoming MedStar employees. The majority of those employees have been mapped over to other positions at the city and will work in new roles as part of the fire-based EMS system. A council vote on that amended agreement is expected in January.
In addition to firefighters, the fire department will house employees whose sole role is to respond to medical emergencies. The anticipated cost for the switch is about $10 million.
MedStar has served more than a dozen Tarrant County cities as the sole EMS provider for 38 years. The organization was created through an interlocal agreement in 1986, after lackluster performance by private EMS providers. But MedStar fielded increasing complaints over the last few years, chiefly regarding response times and its inability to remain financially viable without subsidies from its member cities.
Fort Worth has set aside $3.5 million in funding for the new EMS system in its 2025 budget, accounting for the last three months of that fiscal year. Come September 2025, City Council will make new increased general fund allocations to the fire-based EMS in its 2026 budget, in addition to fees it collects from other cities.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
