K-5 - Purchase of Fire Reporting Management Software

MEMORANDUM TO: Brad Hill, Fire Chief Tiffin City Council CC: Doug Boldt, City Administrator FROM: Bill Erb, Fire Marshal RE: Agreement with First Due for the Purchase of a Fire Records Management System DATE: October 12, 2023 Attached hereto for your consideration is a proposed Agreement with First Due, for the purchase of software necessary to replace the City’s existing fire records management system. There are two sets of reports that are exported to the State of Iowa. National Fire Incident Reporting System, (NFIRS) records are exported quarterly to the State of Iowa prior to routing to the U.S. Fire Administration. Externally, this data is utilized to identify and track trends in fire safety on a national level. The records management system also provides data utilized to gauge the City’s Fire Department against NFPA 1710 Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, which is a measure by which all fire departments in the United States are compared. Internally, the City can capture Performance Excellence measures and utilize data to validate required maintenance of the City’s Insurance Services Office, (ISO) Public Protection Classification Rating, which enables Tiffin citizens to take advantage of reduced insurance rates based upon the effectiveness of the City’s emergency services. The second set of records are electronic Patient Care Reports, (ePCR) which are transmitted to the Iowa Department of Health & Human Services, Bureau of Emergency Medical and Trauma Services which is routed to National Emergency Medical Services Information System, (NEMSIS). Information collected by NEMSIS is collected in a national database of EMS data from states and territories. NEMSIS is a collaborative system to improve patient care through the standardization, aggregation, and utilization of point of care EMS data at a local, state, and national level. The Tiffin Fire Department’s existing fire records management system was purchased from Emergency Reporting. In 2018 Emergency Reporting bought Firehouse Software requiring organizations that use Firehouse Software to transition to Emergency Reporting or a different vendor. This transition included a data transfer cost. In July 2021, Emergency Reporting was acquired by a competitor, ESO, which has notified customers that it would not be continuing its fire/EMS records management system resulting in customers receiving limited service as they moved away from the existing system. In July 2022, the Tiffin Fire Department contacted ESO, after notification was announced that ESO would not be continuing to support Emergency Reporting. At that time there was no transition timeline. After several months of inquiry to our ESO vendor, we were provided information that clients in the State of Iowa were not a priority as there was no compliance date set for the upgrade of the EMS transmittal form to NEMSIS 3.5. After meeting with our neighboring communities of Iowa City, North Liberty, and Solon, that also utilized Emergency Reporting for their department records management, we learned all of them have transitioned to First Due. In September 2023, we were notified that the Iowa Department of Health &