The DCFEMS chief can’t seem to catch a break. Every attempt Chief Ken Ellerbe has made to revamp the department’s operation to better respond to the community’s needs has been met with resistance — and at times, total disdain.
His latest proposal to shut down a neighborhood fire station to increase on-duty medics during peak call times is no exception.
Yet, given a rancorous relation with labor and an ever-increasing distrustful city council, it’s not very likely that such a Band-Aid gesture would even make much of a difference for the department.
It continues to suffer from poor performance and poor public perception.
Kicking cans down the road
On one hand I can’t lay all of the blame on the current chief. He inherited decades of a poorly managed public safety organization, with each prior chief kicking a bunch of proverbial cans down the road.
It points to the greater issue of not having a plan.
The department’s own civil committee released a report in 2013 that said as much. It determined there was no coherent, logical approach to staffing an appropriate level of EMS resources by the department. It seemed leadership at the time didn’t even know how many ambulances could be available on any given day.
But even this report doesn’t capture the full extent of the issue.
Like many large urban EMS departments, DCFEMS has not evolved since the 1970s. Revised construction codes and enforcement has led to fewer fires over the past 40 years, but staffing levels have not dropped in response.
At the same time, the demand for EMS has risen due to changing demographics, an aging population and poorly distributed health care availability. Add in the mind-numbing intricacies of reimbursement and the medical-legal environment and you have a situation that would be difficult for any department to adapt to.
It’s about mindset
But many fire departments have done just that, managing to incorporate the evolving needs of their communities, while maintaining operational effectiveness for existing ones.
What they have in common is a long-term strategic mindset that looks at needs not just in one year, but three, five or 10 years down the road. They consider the financial, operational and cultural barriers to overcome, as well as who needs to be involved in the planning.
In many ways DCFEMS is the case study for how a department fails in the face of change. Without leadership and vision from all levels of the organization, it’s not likely things will improve anytime soon.
