Rather than speeding patients to emergency departments, paramedics are taking a new tack to keep patients out of the ED called community paramedicine, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal.
Here are five things to know about the emerging initiative for emergency responders.
1. Community paramedics go on scheduled house calls to help patients in non-emergency situations. The new role for paramedics has them visiting patients, especially elderly patients or those with chronic conditions, and take vital signs, administer medications and perform lab tests following discharge from a hospital. Community paramedicine is meant to augment nursing and home care services, according to the report.
2. Some programs have already proven to be successful in reducing hospitalizations and ED visits. Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger Health System's pilot was able to prevent 42 hospitalizations, 33 ED visits and 168 inpatient days between March 2014 and June 2015, according to WSJ. The paramedics made visits to 704 patients within that time period. Robbinsdale, Minn.-based North Memorial Health Care cut the use of inpatient and ED services in half and saved roughly $8,500 per patient for its 10-paramedic program, according to the report.
3. Payment models vary and are still being developed. According to WSJ, some programs are funded by grants, Medicaid or Medicare.
4. The new pace of community paramedics can be an adjustment. While some paramedics mentioned in the article that the slower pace can be an adjustment, they enjoyed getting to know their patients on a more personal level. Generally the paramedics will still spend about 30 percent of their time attending to emergency situations, according to the report.
5. Patients have expressed satisfaction with the programs. Patients, especially those who don't meet home-nursing criteria or don't need a person in their home regularly, benefit from the programs. One patient, who was 52 and had kidney failure, congestive heart failure, lung disease and diabetes, told WSJ the paramedics offer care that "is deeper and more personal than what I expected."
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