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From fighting fires as a teenage volunteer to teaching college students about emergency health care, Dr. Jeffrey Jarvis’ love of helping people led him to his role overseeing emergency medical response in the nation’s 11th-largest city.

As Texas develops its application for federal Rural Health Transformation Program funding, rural hospital leaders say stabilizing their facilities should be a top priority. "Without it, all the planning in the world will not matter because there will be no hospital left to transform," one said.

As Fort Worth launched its in-house emergency medical services at midnight July 1, there wasn’t much dramatic fanfare.

As a MedStar operations supervisor, he’s had a front row seat to watch the final details of Fort Worth’s takeover of the company’s EMS operations fall into place. Beginning July 1, the city will provide its own emergency medical services, or EMS, within the fire department, instead of contracting to its 39-year-long provider, MedStar.

Tarrant County Public Health is assisting Arlington emergency services in treating individuals who frequently call 911 for non-emergency reasons as part of a new partnership.

Officials updated Fort Worth City Council on the status of the transition at an April 15 work session, detailing budget projections, staffing changes and infrastructure preparation.

As the end of the year inches closer, Fort Worth is making steady progress on its plan to dissolve longtime EMS provider MedStar.

After the City Council’s May vote to dissolve longtime North Texas EMS provider MedStar and move to a fire-based system, the city began looking at how best to bring MedStar EMTs and paramedics into the fold. In order to make that happen, representatives from the city, the fire department’s union and MedStar sat down July 12 to discuss needed changes to the collective bargaining agreement that governs fire employee rights. At the top of the list: tweaking how firefighters are defined.

American Medical Response requested the rate increase due to rising costs for EMS providers. The city of Arlington and the company will promote programs to help families pay for the services.

Experts say community paramedicine programs, which involve paramedics checking in on people with known health issues before an emergency happens, can cut costs and ease strains on health care systems in rural areas.

After more than 38 years, MedStar’s time as the designated EMS provider for Fort Worth is drawing to a close.