When Evergreen Fire Protection District asked voters for a tax increase this year, was a decline in revenue caused by the increase in Medicare and Medicaid patients whose coverage pays less for rides to the emergency room.
More than half of Evergreen’s fire and EMS calls are medical-related, and the nearest ER is St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, about 20 miles away.
So in anticipation of the increased funds, which voters approved with a 3.5 mill increase, the agencies budgeted for a plan aimed at .
“Not everybody needs to go to the hospital,” Evergreen Fire Chief Mike Weege said. “Sometimes they just need to go to their doctor, sometimes they need to go to urgent care.”
Traditionally, a call for an ambulance leaves two options: Take a trip to the ER, or refuse the ride. Soon Evergreen EMS will be able to offer another option: community paramedicine.Under this program, paramedics get additional training so that they can further assess the situation and administer onsite or preventative care that eliminates the need for a trip to the emergency room.
“The way that we’re viewing this is as an extension of the hospital, in that we’re trying to fill the gap in between home health care and long-term care,” said Quatro Roderick, interim EMS coordinator for Evergreen Fire.
Community paramedicine covers a variety of practices, from visiting patients who are recovering from surgery to ensure they are following through on post-op care, to checking in on older adults, and public health education geared toward emergency incident prevention.
, which directs ambulance services, fire districts and departments to administer some out-of-hospital care and community education.
, Colorado Springs and in other states around the country have already started community paramedicine in their communities, but Evergreen’s will be on of the firsts in the metro area.
Evergreen Fire Rescue will spend the next year or so studying the community, the type and frequency of calls they get and how best to turn them into non-emergency calls.
“Itap a community-based need so each system is going to be designed differently to meet the needs of their communities,” Roderick said.
The department will also spend time working with other agencies, such as the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, the Senior Resource Center and the Jefferson Center for Mental Health looking at existing resources and practices that can be integrated into community paramedicine.
A Perfect Homecoming, a new partnership between Senior Resource Center and Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, fits the bill.
Senior Resource Center in Evergreen serves around 4,200 residents in Gilpin, Clear Creek and Jefferson counties annually. The nonprofit has centers throughout the metro area that provide in-home care, adult day programs, food banks, transportation and more for senior citizens.
Under A Perfect homecoming, Lutheran notifies the center when a senior patient is released. The center sends a social worker to the patientap home to do an assessment for any retrofitting, home repairs or cleaning to meet their physical needs. They then provide transportation to and from follow-up appointments and other in-home care they may need.
“Itap a really good collaboration because we are all looking for the senior being in their homes as long as possible,” said Nancy Tzeng, associate director of Senior Resource Center.
Tzeng said the goal behind the program is the same as community paramedicine: To minimize those 911 calls.
Evergreen EMS will be working directly with St. Anthony Hospital as it develops its community paramedicine program. Tom Candlin III is the EMS coordinator for St. Anthony Hospital. He is also part of the International Roundtable on Community Paramedicine and a working group appointed by the governor to better define what the care looks like.
Evergreen will be the first fire district St. Anthony Hospital will work with on community paramedicine, Candlin said. It is a good place to start because it is semi-rural, with a number of calls to the emergency room that can probably be solved with a house call from a paramedic who can make that extra assessment.
“I think Evergreen is going to probably be ahead of the curve,” he said.