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Home My WebLink About2007/09/11-Minutes-City Council-Emergency CITY OF FORT WORTH,TEXAS EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING SEPTEMBER 11, 2007 Present Mayor Mike Moncrief Mayor Pro tem Kathleen Hicks, District 8 Council Member Salvador Espino, District 2 Council Member Chuck Silcox, District 3 Council Member Daniel Scarth, District 4 Council Member Jungus Jordan, District 6 Council Member Carter Burdette, District 7 Council Member Wendy Davis, District 9 Absent Council Member Frank Moss, District 5 City Staff Charles Boswell, City Manager Marcia Wise, Deputy City Attorney Sylvia Glover, Assistant City Secretary With a quorum of the City Council Members present, Mayor Moncrief called the emergency session of the Fort Worth City Council to order at 2:21 p.m. on Tuesday, September 11, 2007, in the Pre-Council Chamber of the Fort Worth City Hall, 1000 Throckmorton Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76102, with Council Member Moss absent. Agenda Item Il NOTICE OF EMERGENCY MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL Discussion Item SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2007 IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE MEETING CITY HALL PRE-COUNCIL CHAMBER 1000 THROCKMORTON STREET, FORT WORTH, TEXAS AGENDA Pursuant to Section 551.045 of the Texas Government Code, notice is hereby given that an emergency or an urgent public necessity exists that requires the City Council to call a special meeting in the Pre-Council Chamber of the Fort Worth City Hall, 1000 Throckmorton Street, Fort Worth, Texas, on Tuesday, September 11, 2007, to consider the items on the agenda listed below. The special meeting will be held immediately after the Infrastructure and Transportation Committee meeting that begins at 1:00 P.M. in the Pre-Council CITY OF FORT WORTH, TEXAS EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING SEPTEMBER 11,2007 PAGE 2 of 5 Chamber at City Hall and before the regular Pre-Council meeting that begins at 3:00 P.M. in the Pre-Council Chamber at City Hall. 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. DISCUSSION ITEM(S) Discussion and action regarding current emergency ambulance response times for priority one calls in the City. 3. EXECUTIVE SESSION The City Council will conduct a closed meeting in order to seek the advice of its attorneys concerning the following pending or contemplated litigation or other matters that are exempt from public disclosure under Article X, Section 9 of the Texas State Bar Rules and as authorized by Section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code: a. Legal issues concerning any item listed on today's agenda. 4. ADJOURN Mayor Moncrief stated that it was brought to his attention that there was a problem dealing with the response times with MedStar Ambulance due to staff shortages and stated that some stop-gap-measures that should be put into place. He requested that Assistant City Manager Joe Paniagua provide background information. Joe Paniagua, Assistant City Manager appeared before Council and gave a presentation relative to what transpired last Thursday regarding the delays that were experienced by MedStar in responding to calls for ambulance service that significantly exceeded the response time goals of the Authority for Priority 1, 2, and 3 level calls. He advised Council that there were 24 Priority 1 calls that exceeded the nine-minute goal. He stated that nine calls exceeded 20 minutes, which caused a delay in the Fire Apparatus there waiting for transport. He further advised that Fire Chief Jackson met with Jack Eades Friday and that the problem was due to a higher than normal call volume and also staff shortage. He stated that MedStar currently had a shortage of 22 EMTs and 16 paramedics, and that this shortfall would probably last through October. He further stated that in response to this situation and working in conjunction with MedStar executive staff and the Emergency Physicians Advisory Board CITY OF FORT WORTH, TEXAS EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING SEPTEMBER 11, 2007 PAGE 3 of 5 medical director, the City staff through the Fort Worth Fire Department implemented a deployment strategy on Saturday morning to immediately place in the field six Advanced Life Support (ALS) teams on a 24 hour basis to provide supplemental patient care coverage within the city limits of Fort Worth. He stated that the ALS team responded to 52 calls with approximately nine or ten service calls that required transport. He advised Council that it was staff's recommendation that the City continues with this strategy or come up with some other variation. In response to Mayor Moncrief, Assistant City Manager Paniagua stated that as far as he knew, there were no fatalities. Council Member Scarth stated that we were the backstop for the City, and stated that we should stay involved in this issue. Mayor Moncrief stated that this was temporary situation, which boiled down to money and the need for ample salaries to be able to hire and keep employees. Council Member Davis stated that she recalled terms in the contract whereby penalties were assessed when the response times were not met. - Assistant City Manager Paniagua stated that that was placed in the contract when there was a third party contractor (Rural-Metro ambulance service) involved, but that since MedStar runs their own ambulances, there was no one who could be fined for the failure to meet response time goals. Council Member Davis stated that there needed to be a discussion relative to emergency vs. non-emergency providers. Council Member Jordan clarified that the Fort Worth firefighters were arriving as first responders in a timely manner, however, the transport time was the delay. He reiterated that there were trained EMTs and paramedics on the Fire trucks. Assistant City Manager Paniagua stated that the City needed to assist MedStar in making sure that a reasonable time frame was met. He also informed Council that there was no proposal to withdraw from the Authority, and stated that staff was recommending the adoption of a resolution relating to Ambulance service response times in the City of Fort Worth, declaring that an emergency exists, and directing the City Manager and City staff to work with MedStar to address service issues within the City and within the Authority. CITY OF FORT WORTH,TEXAS EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING SEPTEMBER 11,2007 PAGE 4 of 5 Council Member Silcox stated that he thought it a good idea to revisit third- party-providers, and inquired as to the locations of the brush trucks. Assistant City Manager Paniagua advised Council of the locations and stated that they were strategically placed in order to be able to respond. He also stated that the City was also suggesting the placement of Fort Worth EMTs with ambulance units. Council Member Burdette commended staff for such a rapid response to such a serious issue. Mayor Pro tem Hicks stated that there was no question of the need to do this and applauded the staff for the strategies to deal with this problem. Council Member Espino stated that funding to MedStar was relative and as part of the review process, he would like to see a long term process to improve and enhance the current solution. He stated that in the long run, the issue is additional funding. Council Member Scarth suggested that MedStar look at third-party vendors to help with broadening the scope of hiring and keeping the people once hired. He stated that the City of Fort Worth was one out of the 14-member cities that participated in the Authority. He further stated that all of the City Fire trucks are staffed with either EMTs or paramedics. Mayor Moncrief stated that the main issue was that of transport, and that this plan was a good start in the right direction, but the call would be to come up with a better solution to this immediate problem. Executive Session It was the consensus of the City Council that they recess into Executive Session at 2:52 p.m.,to: 1. Seek the advice of its attorneys concerning the following pending or contemplated litigation or other matters that are exempt from public disclosure under Article X, Section 9 of the Texas State Bar Rules and as authorized by Section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code: 2. Legal issues concerning any item listed on today's agenda. Reconvened The City Council reconvened into the emergency session at 3:17 p.m., with all members present. CITY OF FORT WORTH, TEXAS EMERGENCY CITY COUNCIL MEETING SEPTEMBER 11, 2007 PAGE 5 of 5 The Mayor advised that there would not be any Citizen Presentations at this time. Council requested that the following information be provided at the presentation on September 18, 2007: 1. Definition of emergency vs. non-emergency transports. 2. Hiring third party vendors for non-emergency transports 3. Use of Fort Worth firefighters to assist MedStar as paramedics or EMTs. 4. Changing MedStar's operating procedures so that this does not happen again. 5. Procedures in place to ensure MedStar's informs member cities in advance when staffing issues appear to be critical. 6. MedStar's funding model and raising their subsidy from their 14- member cities. 7. Place the MedStar issue on mid-year and end of year budget discussions. Mayor Pro tem Hicks made a motion, seconded by Council Member Silcox, that Resolution No. 3522-09-2007 be adopted. The motion carried unanimously, nine (9) ayes to zero (0)nays. Agenda Item XIX There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:18 p.m. Adjournment These minutes approved by the Fort Worth City Council on the 18ffi day of September, 2007. Attest: Approved.: i Marty H ndrix Micha J. oncr' f City Secretary Mayo