Management Services Division

The major roles of the Management Services Division (MSD) are to provide personnel issues support for all divisions of the Fire Department and to act as liaison with other City of Miami Departments, as well as outside agencies on issues of importance to the department. This division handles “people issues” and strives to eliminate impediments to employees’ performance. This is accomplished by coordination of employee assistance programs and assisting injured employees in their efforts to regain full health while guiding them through the workers’ compensation process. The division also conducts investigations into allegations of employee misconduct and administers the department’s progressive discipline program, grievance and/or administrative hearings. Additionally, this division is responsible for coordinating select Information Technology initiatives in the department such as our internet and intranet sites. Finally, this division also serves as the Fire Chief’s representative at Civil Service and Pension Board meetings.

Labor Relations Section

Management Services Division is in charge of the department’s labor relations issues and the facilitation of communication to all divisions, as to the requirements of the various collective bargaining negotiated-agreements. The administrative functions within this section involves: the organization of the department’s labor management initiatives, the management of the department’s policies and procedures and the City’s rules and regulations governing the progressive disciplinary program, the coordination of administrative hearings, responding and tracking of employee grievances, conducting internal investigations of employee misconduct, citizens complaints, and employment verifications. In addition, this section also maintains an open line of communication with the Law Department, Labor Relations, Employee Relations, and the Office of Equal Opportunity/Diversity Programs, to encourage an ongoing cooperative labor-management relation.

Personnel Section

The Personnel section is delegated with the responsibility of fostering a positive employment experience for all our employees through various services. This includes the oversight of employee’s well-being initiatives, such as random substance abuse screening, annual physical examinations, vaccinations for Flu and Hepatitis B and assisting employees who have incurred work-related injuries that require medical services. This division also leads the department’s Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) program. This program is designed to function as a referral agent for employees and their families who experience post-trauma syndromes. This has been especially helpful to our Urban Search and Rescue Team (FL-TFII) following their deployment to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Earthquake/Hurricane disaster in Haiti, and other major events.

Firefighter Recruit Hiring

This section acts as a liaison and works closely with the Department of Employee Relations (ER) from the inception to conclusion while coordinating the recruitment, application and selection process to fill vacant positions within the Fire Department. Such administrative functions include: the processing of applicants, the coordination of our Backgrounds Unit, the facilitation and management of applicants with the scheduling of medical examinations, uniform distribution and issuance of employee Identification Cards. The overall goal throughout this process is to assure fair consideration of all candidates and compliance with the City’s Civil Service Rules.

Management Information Section

The Information Management section, working in conjunction with the Fire Information Technology Committee (FIT) is commissioned with the responsibilities of coordinating select Information Technology initiatives for the entire department, as well as monitoring the progress of these City-wide projects. This includes the enhancements of the department’s Internet and Intranet websites. Recent projects include the implementation of the SafetyPad electronic patient care reporting software, as well as the development of the Illness Tracking and Overtime databases. Our objective is to link the needs of our operating divisions with City resources, in an effort to streamline existing methodologies and implement “best business practices”.

Significant Accomplishments

• On May 2009, the Department of Fire-Rescue unveiled and implemented its SafetyPad client software. The department’s utilization of the Electronic Patient Care Report (ePCR) application allows for the collection of patient information as a replacement to paper PCR (field copies). This initiative has significantly improved our services by: 1) equipping Firefighters with portable tablets to collect near real-time patient and incident information 2) ensuring compliance with all HIPAA and other Miami and/or Federal regulations requirements of protecting the privacy of patient’s medical records, which are maintained and stored in a secure database 3) quickly and accurately generating a patient’s report in a uniform and comprehensive manner, resulting in increased revenues due to better documentation of higher levels of services 4) complying with the Florida Emergency Medical Services Tracking and Reporting System (EMSTARS), a State repository used for the collection and analysis of incident level patient care records used to positively impact future services by improving on the current practices provided by emergency care personnel today.
• In conjunction with the Fire Department’s motto of providing “excellence through service” to its residents, the implementation of Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) for all front line emergency vehicles significantly enhanced our communications infrastructure. The use of MDTs allows the crews to receive dispatch information directly in their apparatus, which improves responding times by minimizing any address miscommunication that may be received over the radio. This also reduces the unnecessary radio traffic of address verifications allowing more “air time” for true emergency scene communications. We are currently testing a new product to upgrade all terminals with another module to provide mapping, using a GPS application. This will decreasing response times by mapping the most direct route to an emergency. Additionally, a second module in testing is for tracking a vehicle’s “live” location via an Automated Vehicle Locator application. This will further enhance the system by decreasing the possibility of vehicle collisions at intersections while responding to emergencies.
• The Personnel Trac System is our latest technological implementation. Although still in its initial phase, it has already proven to be very efficient as a web-based application to track Workers’ Compensation Claims. This application is used to provide greater control and visibility of all employees’ injuries and is designed for the entry, monitoring, and tracking of: injuries, personnel work statuses and medical/treatment notes. The system also provides automated emails to alert the user of pertinent benchmark dates. Other major enhancements are a system-generated MS Word and Adobe Acrobat documents with the ability to scan documents to save in an electronic format for immediate retrieval and historical purposes. These features enable us to contribute in the initiative of becoming a paperless agency, while enhancing the delivery of customer service to both internal/external customers.