Merging Medstar EMS & Fort Worth Fire: What's at stake?

Rolling EMS services from a contractor, MedStar, into the Fort Worth Fire Department: It's a beefy mission that the city set out on hoping to shave response times.

For the first time on Friday, the fire department, firefighters association, city staff, and MedStar employees came to the table to talk about what the transition plan will look like.

“Just figuring out, you know, EMTs, Paramedics, supervisors. What’s the… rank structure look like? What does the hierarchy look like?” said Michael Glynn, Fort Worth Professional Firefighters Association President, during the meeting.

He estimates that the department will be bringing on 400 or more new employees.

Glynn said that'll decrease workload and contribute to better response times.

“I fully expect that we’re going to have more people responding to calls on a daily basis.”

Leaders discussed not only how to match up contracts and pay, but safety and certification requirements.

No decisions were made, only plans to further discuss some finer points among committees before coming back to the table on July 26th.

NBC 5 asked what's at stake if the major merger hits a road bump once it's launched.

“Is there any concern here that if y’all don’t time this right, do this right, that response times will actually suffer instead of get better?" asked NBC 5's Tahera Rahman.

Glynn said he was confident there wouldn't be any issues.

Fire Chief James Davis said there is a risk.

“Well, there’s always a risk of that because of a couple of different things: The uncertainty of what continued growth in the community is going to look like. We’re a community that’s been growing an average of 20 to 25,000 people a year in the six years I’ve been here," Davis explained.

He said the department's job is to keep the fire department adapting and growing, in response to a growing community.

Glynn said he's confident the new structure they're building now will stand the test of time.

"We’re all going to work together in a better fashion than we have before because we’re all going to be working under one organization, one fire department," he said.

According to an outside study that initially proposed different EMS models for the City of Fort Worth, incorporating EMS into the fire department would cost $10.5 million dollars-- not including capital costs, like buying ambulances and buildings.

Glynn said they are planning to buy ambulances and replace old ones, but he doesn't have an updated cost estimate.

The merge is expected to launch in 12 to 18 months, putting it in the Spring or Fall of 2025, Glynn said.

City Council members voted to make this move in May.