Austin-Travis County EMS 2023 Annual Report

Words from the chief 2023 marked a year of significant growth for Austin-Travis County EMS. We completed our Strategic Plan, and made great strides toward our newly updated mission: ‘Fostering our community’s health and safety through inspired solutions.’ With that mission in mind, ATCEMS established and grew industry-leading initiatives and renewed our commitment to innovation and outside-of-the-box thinking. As you’ll see throughout this report, our commitment spans well beyond our daily ambulance operations. This includes Finance and Human Resources, Support and Logistics, Integrated Services, and Employee Well-being to name a few. With costs continuing to grow, our finance team worked to increase our revenue by more than 25%, adding more than $10M to the General Fund. Our new Airport Paramedic program is improving healthcare equity in the community, ensuring resources are available for local residents by reducing ambulance responses to the airport by more than 50%. Emergency Medical Services is a community effort. Bystander education prior to EMS arrival is proven to save lives, and in 2023, ATCEMS increased its commitment to empower the community. We launched a Stop the Bleed educational campaign that has trained over 800 civilians in bleeding control to date, taught nearly 1,500 residents in CPR, and distributed over 500 Narcan overdose kits in the community. Despite all of these achievements, we are not without our challenges. While our recruiting has stabilized, the exponential growth of Austin and Travis County in the past few years makes it difficult to keep up with the need for expansion. As our providers work harder, it becomes even more important to put a renewed emphasis on provider health and wellbeing. Likewise, maintaining our top-notch equipment, fleet, and facilities are critical, albeit challenging in the era of significant cost increases and supply chain shortages. Ultimately, however, the thing about ATCEMS that makes me most proud is the people. We continue to have some of the highest caliber individuals working every single day to keep the residents and visitors of Austin and Travis County safe and healthy. Their penchant for innovation and dedication to the profession is unmatched, and I am blessed to have the opportunity to work with them. The City of Austin and Travis County are incredibly lucky to have this group of passionate and dedicated pre-hospital providers, and I am consistently in awe of the work they do day in and day out. I want to thank and recognize the Mayor and City Council of the City of Austin, the Travis County Judge and Commissioner’s Court, and all of the officials and public safety partners that support the Austin-Travis County EMS System and its efforts to be a pioneer in the EMS industry. We would not be here today without your support.

Robert Luckritz Chief of Emergency Medical Services

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