Fort Worth approves plan to shift EMS services from MedStar to city fire department

For the first time in over 30 years, MedStar will no longer run EMS services in Fort Worth.

On Tuesday, the Fort Worth City Council voted to absorb EMS services into the city’s fire department, taking on hundreds of new employees as MedStar ceases operations.

Medstar is dissolving due to financial difficulties after providing EMS for Fort Worth in 1986. The city has been considering alternatives to MedStar since the fall, using a consultant to explore multiple options before bringing EMS into the fire department.

“We’re very proud of the fact that the city has entrusted the Fort Worth Fire Department with this mission,” said Jim Davis, Fire Chief for the city of Fort Worth. “We’re up to that task, and we look forward to working with our new partners.”

The move will cost the city $10 million and bring around 450 employees from MedStar into Fort Worth.

The fire chief told NBC5 that many of these employees have worked alongside city staff for years.

“The idea of bringing them into our organization and embedding them into our organization should not be seen as some crazy, outside-the-box novel concept,” Davis said.

While the fire department already has employed some paramedics as part of its fire engine teams, the department hasn’t had the amount of equipment MedStar maintained - or their ambulances.

Acquiring those tools will be the next part of the transition process.

“If all the member cities can agree then the system's assets would actually come with the change in conditions,” Davis said.

13 other North Texas cities are expected to contract with Fort Worth for EMS services.

The group will include Haslet, whose mayor told NBC 5 that service response times would be his biggest priority during the change.

“Improved response time of ambulance service to the end user,” said Gary Hulsey, Haslet’s mayor.

A study from the city of Fort Worth showed that average response times in the new system were expected to drop from over 13 minutes to eight minutes.

The fire chief said his team would be committed to meeting that goal.

“The end user of the product should see nothing different other than, as time goes on, a better, more reliable delivery of services to them,” Davis said.

The city expected it to take 12 to 18 months to fully complete the transition of EMS services from MedStar to the fire department.

NBC 5 contacted MedStar to respond to the city’s approval to shift services from their company to the fire department’s responsibility.