Austin-Travis County EMS reports lower vacancies, wider use of advanced life‑support squads and fewer lights‑and‑sirens responses

Wes Hopkins, chief of staff for Austin‑Travis County Emergency Medical Services, presented the department’s fiscal‑year 2025 third‑quarter report to the Public Safety Commission on Sept. 8, outlining staffing changes, operational updates and an evidence‑based overhaul of dispatch priorities.

Hopkins said the department’s authorized sworn strength remains 714 with 609 in the field and about 105 total vacancies. He called out 27 open field medic positions and one communications vacancy, putting the sworn vacancy rate at roughly 13.8 percent. Civilian vacancies, he reported, are at an all‑time low of about 8 percent.

The department is running multiple training pipelines. Hopkins said the July academy (7/25) had 19 cadets — 18 field medics and one communications medic — graduating Sept. 12, and an October academy (10/25) will enroll 22 cadets, including 21 field medics and one direct‑hire clinical specialist. He described the internal paramedic program as a key tool to address a national paramedic shortage: the current paramedic class has 14 candidates and another 12 begin in April 2026, with a cohort of internal candidates currently completing a PL5 credentialing academy in October.

Hopkins reported transitions of grant-funded opioid work: the SAMHSA grant for Narcan rescue kits is closed and supplies are now supported by opioid settlement funding. In Q3 the department distributed 4,308 Narcan rescue kits; 172 of those were reported used prior to EMS arrival by law enforcement or fire personnel. Hopkins referenced a…