The district will take over providing emergency medical services across more than 177 square miles of north Harris County, currently being provided by Cypress Creek Emergency Medical Services, on Sept. 1.
Along with the creation of ESD 11 Mobile Healthcare, the district is in the first of three phases of construction that will renovate its main administrative building into a new campus that will include a 911 call center, as well as an operational deployment center for the new service.
According to Ricardo Martinez—president of Martinez Architects, the firm responsible for designing and managing the project—the first phase of construction, which includes the 911 and operational deployment centers, is estimated to be complete by Oct. 5.
At the July 22 meeting, ESD 11 Commissioner Fred Grundmeyer sought assurance that the new ambulance services would be ready by the Sept. 1 start date.
ESD 11 Executive Director Doug Hooten said while there is still work to be done before ESD 11 Mobile Healthcare launches, he believes the service will be fully operational by Sept. 1.
“We already have our 911 lines running,” Hooten said. “The ambulances are coming in. The inventory is here. We have all of the employees, which is probably the hardest piece to make sure you have in place. When we’re trained and ready to go, I am very confident that we’ll be able to start Sept. 1.”
Hooten noted that he has run into some difficulty getting supplies and construction materials needed to complete the project, though he said everything necessary for the new service to be operational should be complete by the time the services launch.
Additionally, ESD 11 officials began training the new employees who will staff Harris County ESD 11 Mobile Healthcare in mid-July. The training program, which was held at Spring Fire Station No. 71, included the onboarding of 180 paramedics, emergency medical technicians and 911 telecommunicators. The program will run six days a week over the course of six weeks, officials said.
