AUSTIN, Texas — There’s a shortage of first responders across the nation, but in Travis County, the Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) Department is making several improvements to make sure that shortage doesn’t affect the services they provide.
On Monday, Wesley Hopkins, the Chief of Staff for ATCEMS, gave a presentation during the Austin Public Safety Commission meeting to discuss the department’s fiscal year third quarter statistics.
ATCEMS currently has 122 vacancies, which is about 18% of the total positions the department is authorized to have. The department started the year with a 24% vacancy rate, then it fell to 17% but it's now back at 18%.
“This is a national problem,” Hopkins said. “It is difficult to find folks that want to work in that pre-hospital emergency medicine, first responder group.”
The department plans to graduate dozens more cadets by the end of the year, as well as complete several station renovations, that they say should help with the vacancies and retention of first responders.
“It really is finding the balance of keeping the vacancy rate low, and then but also getting the enhancements to meet the 9-1-1 volume demand,” Hopkins said.
Five stations, EMS Station numbers 1, 5, 7, 10 and 13, will be receiving renovations from the $25 million bond passed in 2018. Those renovations are set to be completed by mid-October and November.
“These stations are hugely important to our success,” Hopkins said.
Renovations on these stations would include upgrading the areas where first responders work and live, as well as adding additional ambulance bays. Hopkins said all these additional resources will help to match the 9-1-1 call volume.
“That bridges a gap, so we’re not pulling ambulances out of neighboring jurisdictions to meet the demand of a dense area,” Hopkins said.
The Austin City Council also committed to renovating five additional stations in six years. Each of those renovations also have a deadline by the end of this year.
In Hopkins' presentation to the committee, he gave an update on the department's supply of ambulance trucks. He said there has been a national shortage of chassis, which is essentially what makes up the frame of an ambulance. That was related to the microchip shortage.
Because of that, the department started to test out a few ambulances from another vendor.
“We were very worried with this chassis shortage and microchip shortage, that we would have to run these ambulances longer,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins says since 2023, more chassis have become available, so more new ambulances are set to come into Austin soon.