Management Services Division
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, Human
Resources, 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 employees' 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 11th
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
Human Resources (HR) from the inception to
conclusion of the hiring process 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, the development of the Illness Tracking
and Overtime databases, as well the development
and implementation of an array of other
applications and databases to increase the
effectiveness and efficiency of the department. 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.
