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Lexington has spent eight years showing that community paramedics can keep people off the 911 line, and a new state grant just pointed its program at people without stable housing. Montana is putting $3.63 million into home visits at 17 rural agencies this week. Meanwhile in British Columbia, a union says a rural town's only community paramedic was just moved back onto 911 duty.
Table of Contents:
Lexington's 60% drop in 911 calls, and what a $462K grant adds next
Montana's $3.63M for home visits, one paramedic and a load of laundry in Michigan, and a B.C. town losing its home visits
Funding Watch: how two Kentucky services won RHTP money, and three conferences before Thanksgiving
MIH Trivia: the Medicare treat-in-place model that ended early
Read Time: 3 minutes
Program Spotlight
Lexington Fire Chief Jason Wells says the city's newest grant is about meeting people where they are. For a community paramedicine program that has run since 2018, that now means a deliberate focus on people experiencing homelessness or unstable housing, paid for by a $462,523 Kentucky Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) grant announced October 14.
The program already puts firefighter/paramedics, police officers, social workers and peer support specialists on three teams. This year, its enrolled patients called 911 more than 60% less and went to the emergency department nearly 58% less. The city's announcement lists what the money buys, starting with three new positions, and it's a useful model if you're writing a homelessness piece into your own RHTP application.
Who to Contact:
Lexington Community Paramedicine Program (press contact Susan Straub, Fire and Emergency Services): [email protected] or (859) 258-3111
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Program Roundup
One State Pays for Home Visits. One Province Pulls Back.
Crews will handle wound care, lab draws, fall risk checks and follow-up after hospital discharge, all under a medical director's care plans. See what the RHTP awards pay for, from new positions to electronic health records.
A $50,000 grant put a community paramedic at Munising Memorial Hospital in July, in a county with one home health agency and a two-week wait to start care. Chief Nursing Officer Christi Salo explains what changed for a patient who kept landing back in the hospital.
The paramedics' union says Valemount lost its weekly home visits on October 7 and that about $9 million of the provincial program's budget has been redirected, while BC Emergency Health Services says it isn't cancelling the program. Worth reading if your community paramedics share a budget line with your 911 crews.
Resources
Funding Watch
California: $50,000 community paramedicine grants, rolling. The CARESTAR Foundation funds California LEMSAs (local EMS agencies) with an approved community paramedicine or triage to alternate destination program, first come first served, by invitation.
How Kentucky services got funded: Georgetown-Scott County EMS won $289,275 through the state's RHTP community paramedicine round, with an application led by one of its own community paramedics, and Carlisle County EMS won $544,000 to launch a program with free screenings and hospital discharge visits. If your state's round hasn't opened yet, ask your state Office of Rural Health when it will.
On the Calendar
Ohio Mobile Integrated Healthcare Workshop, Columbus, November 6. A one-day session on starting or growing a program, from protocols to billing. Register by November 1.
National Conference on EMS, Atlantic City, November 17 to 20.
Texas EMS Conference, Fort Worth, November 22 to 25.
Now Hiring
Paramedic, Mobile Integrated Health, Advocate Health (Aurora Medical Center Grafton), WI. $25.30 to $37.95 an hour.
Paramedic, Community / Mobile Integrated Health, Carroll County Fire and EMS, Westminster, MD. Hiring range $29.51 to $30.69 an hour.
MIH EMT/Paramedic, Forsyth County, Winston-Salem, NC. $59,667 to $68,617.
MIH Trivia: How Long Did Medicare's Treat-in-Place Model Last?
The Emergency Triage, Treat, and Transport (ET3) model paid participating ambulance services to treat patients on scene or take them somewhere other than the ER. It started January 1, 2021, and was designed to run for five years. How long did it actually last, and when did it end?