Fort Bend County moves two ambulances out of Sugar Land

Fort Bend County’s EMS has relocated its two ambulances in Sugar Land to other areas of the county, following that city’s launch of its own 911 service in January.

The first Mobile Intensive Care Unit, Medic 7, will relocate to the new North East Fort Bend County Volunteer Fire Station off Clodine Road later this year. The second unit, Medic 3, started operating out of a Stafford fire station in the City of Meadows Place on Tuesday.

“In this new location, Medic 3 will be able to respond more efficiently to areas of the county and provide quicker back-up to units in the Stafford, Missouri City and northeast areas of Fort Bend County,” county EMS Director Graig Temple said.

Fort Bend County ran two ambulances in Sugar Land, although they also were responsible for areas outside the booming city. Unhappy with response times — particularly for life-threatening events — and the quality of records transfers to hospitals, Sugar Land leaders tried unsuccessfully to convince the county to fund additional ambulances. By 2012, the city council had approved funding to expand the fire department to include an ambulance service. That service launched this year, although without the use of common medications.

For years, Fort Bend struggled to meet its goal of reaching 90 percent of scenes in 10 minutes or less, an industry standard, particularly during peak call hours when ambulances were stretched thin across the vast, growing county. Fort Bend leaders say recent pay raises have ended employee disputes that led to a 2013 federal labor investigation and also were blamed for low morale that idled ambulances because the county could not hire as fast as paramedics were leaving.

Since taking the helm of Fort Bend’s ambulance service in April, Temple reports that a handful of changes, including where units wait for calls during peak times, has cut a full minute off the response time for 90 percent of calls in the county to 12 minutes. The average response time is under seven minutes.

He said work remains to be done. In June, Temple asked Fort Bend County Commissioners to increase the department’s budget by 31 percent for next year so he can add new units and increase staffing.

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Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle Graig Temple, director of the Fort Bend EMS, left, and Fort Bend County Judge, Robert “Bob” Hebert, talk at the Stafford Fire Station No. 3, 11803 Kirkwood Road, Tuesday, June 30, in Meadows Place. Fort Bend County EMS relocated the Medic 3 ambulance...