PULSE Magazine | February 2019 Issue

well equipped facility with abundant room for sleeping, recreation and equipment maintenance.

facing Sue Edwards when she was assigned as director of the Austin EMS Department. She is another of Davidson picks who managed several other city programs before coming to EMS. Sue Edwards proved to be the right person for the Austin EMS department as it passed through its fifth and sixth years with notable calm. Edwards stream-liner the organization, concentrated on concept and programs that nurtured the organiza- tions people and their commitment to quality patient care. During her tour of duty Ms. Edwards implemented bottom-to-top systems of planning and goal setting. Every member of the agency participated in setting its goals, planning the future and evaluation the quality of service. When Sue Edwards was reassigned to the city tax department, her replacement was from within the ranks of the EMS department. Dennis Simmons was appointed officially as director in January 1984. Simmons knows the Austin system as well as anyone, he came to it in 1975 after working for the duplicated private provider. When he stood at the podium to accept the EMS Service of the Year Award on behalf of his department and its people, he embodied the pride and happiness of one who has traveled a long road of trial and progress. After Simmons returned home with the award City Manager Jorge Carrasco added to the honors. At a special ceremony, he provided the City Managers Excellence Award to each member of the EMS department. The award and photos of all members of the department at the time of the award are on display at the city's new EMS head- quarters building. Though I had no role in selecting Austin as the winner, I was pleased by the choice. In the past I have used Austin as an example of excellence, of what can be done in EMS. At the same time, I have shared with my friends at Austin the opinion that success and the symbols of permanence can be intoxicating lures one into self satisfied isolation and indifference. Being designated as the best in the nation can be a heady experience, but it takes a special effort to stay at the top of the heap. I have few doubts that the Austin EMS system will master that challenge. The commit- ment to patient care has become a cultural bond between the people in the system. The solid infrastructure constructed by Dan Davidson administration generalist is complemented by the street wise experience and ideas of people recruit- ed to the system from throughout the nation are harvested by Austin's form of participative management. We look forward to revitalizing Austin in a year or two. I look forward to telling Leo Schwartz, who is retired and living in Virginia, that the award that bears his name inspired an even greater effort toward long-term excellence in EMS.

There is no doubt that Austin EMS system is expensive, and that fact frequently has been cited by EMS evaluators and observers. But it doesn't seem to bother taxpayers in Texas’ Capitol city. In recent years, they have approved issuance of revenue bonds to expand the system to build EMS substations and to provide a permanent head- quarters building. On one visit to Austin, I ap- peared as the guest of a call in television talk show. It was impossible to get any controversy going, the callers simply wanted to praise the Austin EMS system. If the people who pay the bills are satisfied, who are we to criticize the cost? It has not always been a bed of roses for the Austin system. Starting a new Ems system in any community is tough. Very few implementers survive the start-up process in Austin, the first director of the system left after two years. When the asked me to recommend a replacement, I sent them a list of talented people to contact. Instead, they appointed Bill Bullock, who worked with the assistant director of the urban transportation department. I remember being disappointed, and predicting that the system would suffer without the leader- ship of an EMS professional. But, I seriously underestimated the brilliance of Dan Davidson’s system of administrative generalist. Before he left his post to enter private enterprise. City Manager Davidson’s regularly shuffled his cadre of bright young managers from department to department. Most often, they proved themselves very capable in mastering the technical mystique and manage- ment demands of a new discipline. Bill Bullock headed up the EMS department from August 1977 to May 1980. During that time, the system stated to settle down and concentrate on its legitimate task high quality patient care and transportation. With stable management and good relations with the city council and the quality assurance team, the system started to build the underpinning of permanence. Surely, Mike Levy has had a role in the change of attitude. On one trip to Austin I found myself in Levy’s high-rise office with Dennis Simmons director of the system, F. Watson manager of training, and G. Burge Shift Supervisor all looking at me. Levy challenged every aspect of my presumed bias toward fire service EMS programs. Thinking faster than a computer and speaking at machine-gun speed Mike Levy, one of the most influential people in Texas, left no doubt that he believed in the Austin EMS system and would fight like hell to defend it. But the powerful citizen advocate who makes him- self available to middle managers, paramedics and EMTs can be a real headache for the administrator of an EMS system. That was one of the headaches

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