By Dr. Gregory Shipkey
As the medical director of both Odessa Fire Rescue and the Medical Center Hospital Emergency Department, and a full-time practicing emergency physician at MCH, I witness firsthand the difference timely medical care makes in the clinical outcome of patients. While Odessa Fire Rescue (OFR) response times, transport times, and clinical care/outcomes are the epitome of top-notch premedical care and the envy of other EMS departments around the country—the simple fact is that we have an extremely large geographic service area, and even with our best efforts, this distance can create delays in service.
Currently, our average EMS response time within the City is under 6 minutes, with patients reaching definitive care at the hospital in just over 16 minutes. However, for those living outside the city limits, the response time extends to over 11 minutes, and it can take nearly 30 minutes to receive definitive care. In some cases—including calls from areas like Gardendale, Goldsmith, or Moss—it has taken over 45 minutes for patients to reach the hospital.
Most folks understand how time-sensitive emergency medical care is. For example, we know that “time is muscle” when it comes to heart attack treatment, “time is brain” when it comes to stroke treatment, and we speak about the “golden hour” when it comes to trauma care—meaning that trauma patients truly need to receive definitive medical care at a hospital within 1 hour of their injury to improve their clinical outcomes/prognosis. While here at MCH we may have cardiologists and a Cath lab team on call 24-7 to immediately do a coronary angiogram for a heart attack, board-certified emergency physicians and neurologists to provide “clot busting” drugs for a stroke 24-7, and trauma surgeons in house 24-7 to immediately take patients to the operating room—the simple fact is that the longer it takes a patient to get to us and receive this definitive care, the worse their clinical outcome will be.
Moreover, MCH serves as the regional medical and trauma referral center for the largest geographic trauma referral region in the nation. When smaller hospitals face cases requiring more specialized care than they can provide, they transfer those patients to MCH—regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. MCH provides more indigent and uninsured care than any hospital in the region – approximately $20 million more than what the health system collected in taxes in 2023 – all while maintaining the lowest tax cap in the region at 0.15. In contrast, our transferring counties have a tax cap of 0.75. The ballot measure will help relieve some of this financial strain and put in place expanded Fire/EMS services across the County, ensuring that no one is left without the care they need.
Ultimately, as Odessans, we pride ourselves on taking care of one another—it’s ingrained in who we are as a community. This ballot measure ensures that every resident of the County can receive timely access to the care they need, no matter where they live. This ballot measure is the first crucial step in making that happen, and we cannot move forward without it. For this election, “it’s a yay for Prop A!”
Dr. Greg Shipkey is the medical director of both Odessa Fire Rescue and the Medical Center Hospital Emergency Department.
