The details
Allen Johnson, executive director of ESD No. 3, is hopeful to begin the district-operated model on or around Oct. 1.
“We are actively executing elements of the transition plan,” he told Bastrop County Commissioners Court in a letter. “One of the first tasks is obtaining our EMS Provider License from the Texas Department of State Health Services.”
Zooming in
Johnson noted that many ESDs choose to operate under a different name when filing an application for an EMS Provider License.
“In our case, ‘Bastrop County Emergency Service District No. 3 EMS’ is quite long and doesn’t quite roll off the tongue,” he said. “After long internal discussions and listening to members of the community and our potential employee base, we would like to use the name ‘Bastrop County Emergency Medical Services’ or ‘Bastrop County EMS’.”
Texas DSHS regulations require county approval for a d/b/a, or "doing business as," name—one that the Bastrop County Commissioners Court gave the OK for during a Dec. 22 meeting.
What else?
ESD No. 3—which has the entirety of Bastrop County in its service area—will still need to have its legal name displayed on each ambulance as the operator.
“We recognize there is a small chance that someone could mistake us as a county department despite ‘operated by Bastrop County ESD No. 3’ being displayed on our apparatus,” Johnson said. “However, we believe that could happen even if this request is denied.”
Notable quote
“In April we negotiated the contract with [Acadian Ambulance] and added clinical performance measures,” Johnson said. “That has resulted in about 2,000 hours of additional coverage per month, which has reduced response times on average by about two minutes. So I think the mission that you all had in mind for the district is certainly coming to fruition.”
