Palm Beach County preliminarily approves major EMS ordinance rewrite; board raises management experience requirement to five years

The Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners gave preliminary approval and permission to advertise for public hearing on a major rewrite of the county Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ordinance, and amended the draft to require five years of executive-level prehospital ALS transport experience for management staff.

Public safety staff told the board the ordinance rewrite is the first major update since 2017 and reflects eight years of incremental changes and recent COPCN (Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity) processes. The rewrite clarifies definitions (for example, primary and secondary service providers and BLS transport units), formalizes that a BLS transport unit may not be used to respond to 911 scene calls or perform scene-to-hospital transports, and specifies that only a county or municipality may serve as a primary service provider in any area. The draft also grandfathered in four existing subscription communities (Century Village North and South, Huntington Lakes, and the Lakes of Delray) but prohibited new subscription agreements.

Staff described changes to application and oversight procedures: expanded public-notice timelines for COPCN applications, an abbreviated recertification pathway for primary providers in good standing, and new data-reporting and auditing requirements (including granular call-level data, monthly response-time reporting and the average daily number of fully staffed EMS vehicles in operation). Complaint and enforcement procedures were strengthened to allow suspension of a COPCN by staff and revocation only by the board.

On response-time standards for secondary providers, staff proposed measured changes: emergent calls would be measured against a 15-minute response-time standard maintained for 90% of calls each month (replacing an average 10-minute metric), and other categories (urgent or routine scheduled transports) clarified patient-readiness windows. The board asked staff to work with hospitals and assisted-living facilities to monitor service delivery and customer experience.

Commissioner Flores proposed raising the draft's management experience floor from three to five years for executive or general-manager-level staff. After discussion, the board approved the preliminary reading and the amendment increasing the required executive-level EMS experience to five years; the motion to approve (including the change) carried 7-0. Staff said the ordinance will return for final adoption at the Dec. 2 public hearing.