NO ROOM AT THE STATION
Travis County EMS medics are working out of apartments
If you call 911 due to a medical emergency, your ambulance will probably come from a fire or emergency medical services station.
But if you live in Bee Cave, Lakeway or Manor, there's a chance your paramedics are working out of an apartment.
This has been happening for years as the cities outside of Austin grow.
Before that, the ambulances worked out of their emergency services district's fire station or at the hospital for the area they were assigned to cover.
As the population increased, the fire stations and hospitals needed more room to add other vehicles, said Selena Xie, president of the Austin-Travis County EMS union.
So the ambulances had to leave.
The makeshift workplaces present challenges that can impede medics' ability to serve the public.
“We would never have fire apparatuses or police apparatuses at apartment complexes,” Xie said. “It's just demoralizing because it just shows how much Travis County values its paramedics that they think it's OK to have them in apartment complexes, which are not buildings designed for EMS.”
Travis County has a contract with the city of Austin to use EMS in areas not covered by an emergency services district, county spokesperson Hector Nieto said. In Travis County, there are 14 emergency services districts, each with its own governing board, that provide firefighting – and sometimes ambulance – services to that area of the county.
“It’s just demoralizing because it just shows how much Travis County values its paramedics that they think it’s OK to have them in apartment complexes.”
Selena Xie President, Austin-Travis County EMS union
EMS Division Chief Eric Jakubauskas told the Statesman that ambulances started having to move into apartments in 2019.
He said an actual building meant to house an ambulance would be preferred, but because of the “explosive growth” in the area, EMS needed to move where its ambulances were housed to continue to provide coverage in those areas.
Beyond the strangeness of placing working medics next door to apartment residents, it can cause efficiency issues that wouldn’t happen if the medics were working out of a station.
One of those issues is access to backup generators. For medics, this is crucial, as ambulances carry equipment that runs on electricity and needs to be charged, such as radios and defibrillators.
But when working out of an apartment complex, the medics don’t get special access to a backup generator as they would at a fire station or other county building, Xie said.
Jakubauskas said this happened during the deadly winter storm in 2021. When a backup generator is needed, medics must park their ambulance near the closest emergency services district station or get portable generators.
Additionally, working out of an apartment complex can slow response times by up to two minutes, Xie said, because medics are not close to the ambulance and have to do simple things such as lock the doors and, in some cases, descend from apartments on the second floor.
In a job in which every second counts, these slowdowns can make a difference, Xie said.
Ultimately, Xie doesn’t fault the fire stations, as she understands they are growing and need the space. For her, this is something that county commissioners need to address.
However, she said any time medics have been kicked out of a fire station, for which they are usually given three months’ notice, the county’s response has been generally the same: “We don’t have any money.”
Officials usually will look to see if there’s a county building available, but so far that hasn’t panned out, Xie said.
“It’s not (the ESDs’) fault that they need to add additional space,” Xie said. “It’s just that Travis County needs to have contingency plans for that. And it’s not good planning that we don’t.”
Nieto, the county spokesperson, said in a statement that to find a permanent solution, all entities involved – the county, EMS, ESDs and municipalities – need to come together to address the EMS needs and how to pay for them.
“As Travis County continues to experience significant expansion, particularly in areas outside our urban cores, it is crucial that we collaborate among our 21 municipalities and towns to effectively meet the increasing demands of growth in our region and provide adequate resources for our first responders,” Nieto said.
“We look forward to working together to address these challenges.”
Though he believes local officials are seeking a permanent solution for medics, Jakubauskas noted that the process to build a station can be long.
“We need to look forward to the future … to work out something to try to move forward,” he said.