El Paso Fire Department Emergency Medical Support Program’s Mission is to provide emergency medical pre-hospital treatment and transportation to the community in order to reduce morbidity and mortality. Deliver patients to definitive care in a timely and fiscally responsible manner.
The Medical Division is known as the Emergency Medical Support Program and is part of the Capital Assets and Personnel Services Division.
The City currently staffs 27 full-time Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) ambulances, four peak-time transport ambulances and four Flex Rescues, for a total of 34 ambulances. Additionally, the El Paso Fire Department is committed to staffing our fire apparatuses at the Advanced Life Support (ALS) level with paramedic personnel. Currently, 65% of fire apparatuses are staffed at paramedic level.
El Paso Emergency Medical Support Program not only provides pre-hospital care to the citizens and visitors of the community, but also participates in special operations. The Emergency Medical Support Program provides medical surveillance and rehabilitation for public safety employees on the scene of large incidents in order to reduce work place injuries and illnesses. Emergency Medical Support Program also participates in search and rescue missions and training with the Combined Search and Rescue (ComSAR) team in order to provide the community with wilderness medical care. Bike patrol teams provide rapid medical response to citizens during large special events.
The El Paso Fire Department participates in training and public education activities in order to educate the public on injury prevention and CPR and participates in professional organizations in order to continue to develop and improve the role of pre-hospital care within the region.
The purpose of the Organizational Research Program is to provide analysis, records management and decision support services to the El Paso Fire Department so they can have timely, accurate and useful information to make service level decisions and report on operations performance to the public.
Fire Service AccreditationThe Organizational Research Program oversees the development of the Department’s Strategic Plan, Standards of Cover and the Self-Assessment manuals. The Division oversees the process to become, and remain, accredited by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. This process ensures the department is meeting the needs of the public and is performing to industry standards and established fire department benchmarks.
Insurance Services Organization (ISO) Organizational Research ProgramThe Organizational Research Program directs compliance with the Insurance Services Office (ISO) requirements to ensure the El Paso Fire Department maintains its current Class 1 ISO rating. The maintenance of the Class 1 rating ensures that the citizens of the community are receiving the best service.
The maintenance of the Class 1 rating ensures that the citizens of the community are receiving the best insurance rates available by providing top level fire protection to the community. The Department is scheduled to have a Public Protection Classification (PPC) resurvey done starting January 9, 2012. Efforts to maintain the Department’s PPC Class 1 are ongoing.
Geographic Information System (GIS)The Organizational Research Program oversees the EPFDS’s GIS services. The Division uses a system of hardware, software and data collection to manage analyze and graphically display the Department’s performance. This process includes, but is not limited to, mapping services, data analysis, and program development.
Research, Departmental Survey InformationOperations Research conducts field investigations, economic or public surveys, demographic studies, or other research; compiling data gathered; performing statistical analysis; preparing statistical charts and graphs.
The Organizational Research Program researches and assimilates the information for numerous surveys. We do annual survey requests from the National Fire Protection Association, Federal Emergency Management Association, Annual ISO Surveys and the Annual International Association of Fire Chief’s Survey on Equipment, Service, and Statistics. We also do survey requests from other fire departments, National Fire Academy Student requests, and demographic requests from the City and County of El Paso.
The Organizational Research Program represents the El Paso Fire Department in the Development Coordinating Committee and the Subdivision Coordinating Committee. The Division also represents the EPFD in the City Plan Commission, the Mountain Development Plan Committee, and the MTP Committee. The Division coordinates with these entities on issues that directly affect Fire Operations. Strategic Planning also coordinates with the Fire Prevention Division to carry out the Department’s Fire Safety initiatives.
Records ManagementThe Organizational Research Program maintains, supports and manages many of the Department’s record management systems in coordination with other Private, Local, State, and Federal agencies. Some of these systems include, but are not limited to FireRecords and TeleStaff.
Custodian of RecordsThe Organizational Research Program is tasked with the custody of the Department’s records. The Division responds to Open Records Requests from the public or other City entities.