In Fort Worth, MedStar has been dipping into its reserves to make ends meet so the city hired a consulting firm to evaluate its services and reconsider its budget.
The Fort Worth Ad Hoc Council Committee on Emergency Medical Response heard the final report from Fitch and Associates. The city hired the consulting firm to assess the EMS services amid concerns over financial constraints with MedStar, which is owned by its 14 member cities, including Fort Worth.
Firm partner Steven Knight outlined four options to the committee to move forward, two of which are to retain MedStar and transfer governance to the Fort Worth City Council, and to replace MedStar with a fire-based EMS model similar to that of Dallas Fire-Rescue.
The third option would be to establish a third public safety service in Fort Worth to handle emergency medical services, at a cost of more than $15 million. And the fourth is to use a private contractor at a cost of almost $9.5 million.
The committee will review the options and will recommend one of them to present to the City Council.
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