The details
According to a city news release, Fitch & Associates, a consulting firm that evaluates emergency medical services, compared Fort Worth to 20 other communities nationwide. As a part of their evaluation, Fitch consultants examined the following components of MedStar:
- Governance and organizational structures
- Operations
- Response times
- Billing and revenue
- Costs and expenditures
Furthermore, while the report shows that MedStar is under-resourced—it’s operating with one of the smaller budgets of the cities in the study and does not receive public funding—they are utilizing resources efficiently.
However, a key concern highlighted in the report showed that MedStar did not meet the desired response time objectives in 2023.
To help meet the challenges outlined in the report, the news release states that the city’s EMS ad hoc committee is focused on addressing systemic shortcomings and increasing MedStar’s effectiveness. As part of the committee’s Jan. 23 meeting, committee members asked Fitch & Associates to build a model based on an eight-minute response time, which the news release states that future EMS response times will be measured against.
Next steps
According to the news release, official recommendations concerning Fort Worth’s EMS have not been given yet. While specific dates were not mentioned, the news release states that Fitch & Associates will present alternate EMS system models to the City Council and the public for consideration.
