AUSTIN (KXAN) — An Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) pilot program that placed medics on Rainey Street during peak hours ended in April, and the agency is now evaluating the possibility of implementing it full-time.
Chief of Operations Kevin Parker said that future depends, in part, on the upcoming city budget. The initial draft of that budget is set to be announced later this week.
"We'll evaluate what we're funded for and make decisions based on that," Parker said. "We seek input from council, the city manager and stakeholder groups."
The medics who worked the Rainey Street patrols used special response units - SRUs for short - instead of ambulances. They're similar to ATVs.
"They're much smaller than our big blue and yellow ambulances," Parker said. "We're able to interact more easily with the public, telling them a great barbeque restaurant to try, or offering them advice on staying safe or making it back to their hotel, Airbnb or home safely."
The agency said the program keeps ambulances freed up for more dire emergencies and, additionally, allows them to patrol proactively.
"Because they're out, they're observing people's behaviors, and there were several instances where our paramedics witnessed somebody stumbling and unsafe, not necessarily that they were near Lady Bird Lake... but medics were able to intervene with that patient, make sure the patient was safe, found their friends or found a way home that was safe," Parker said.
Crews have finished installing a new set of lights on the hike and bike trail near Rainey Street.
This is part of a long-term safety-improvement plan out of the Parks and Recreation Department. Unlike the lights that were up before this month, most of these are along the trail closer to Lady Bird Lake.
Crews told KXAN while the fixtures are up, they're still working on wiring the lights, so they're not fully functional yet. They hope to have everything complete by the end of next week.
