The Santa Barbara County Fire Department will begin providing emergency medical services and ambulance response countywide beginning in March 2024, thanks to Santa Barbara County Local 2046 and a coalition of fire departments, labor groups, and fire department management.
“Congratulations to Local 2046 on this historic win,” said 10th District Vice President Stephen Gilman. “It wasn’t an easy battle, but our members dug in and kept working until the permits were granted. I look forward to seeing the improvements they make to Santa Barbara County’s emergency medical service.”
American Medical Response (AMR) has been the sole emergency medical response provider for the county for decades. So, the first obstacle was to convince the Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors that there would be a benefit to exploring other options.
“From the start, we wanted to improve the system to deliver better service in a more timely manner to the communities across Santa Barbara County,” said Local 2046 President Hugh Montgomery.
The Santa Barbara County Fire Department first needed the opportunity to submit a bid for the contract. Former Local 2046 President Bryan Fernandez led got their foot in the door.
“What helped tremendously was that we were able to bring all of the fire departments and fire department management together on this issue,” said former Local 2046 President Bryan Fernandez. “It wasn’t a fast process, but the Board of Supervisors agreed to open the contract up for bid in 2022.”
The only two bidders were the Santa Barbara County Fire Department and AMR. Through an internal process referred to as a Request for Proposal (RFP), the bidders submitted their service plans for consideration.
Initially, an independent review panel scored AMR’s proposal higher than the Santa Barbara Fire Department and recommended awarding AMR the contract. However, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors disagreed with the panel’s decision because of AMR’s failure to address response times improvements, service integration, paramedicine programs, and other innovations.
Therefore, the supervisors modified the bidding process by passing an ordinance to rescind the county code that required an exclusive ambulance service contract. Instead, they introduced a non-exclusive, multi-permit model to allow for the following three permits: emergency medical calls, interfacility transport, and critical care transport, which necessitates advanced-trained personnel.
In a unanimous decision, the County Board of Supervisors granted all three permits to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, with implementation slated for March 2024.
The supervisors noted that their decision was influenced by the idea of a fully integrated 911 response system (i.e., dispatch, EMS, fire), faster response times, and paramedicine response.
“We appreciate the support we have gotten from other departments and management. Now, we are looking forward to putting our plan into action,” said Fernandez.
