🚒 MIH in Action: From Handbook to the Frontlines

A look back at leading MIH programs who are turning strategy into real-world impact, one patient, one visit, one partnership at a time.

August 13, 2025

Hi there,

The IAFC’s Mobile Integrated Healthcare Handbook offers a roadmap for building smarter, community-based EMS systems and some departments are already setting the standard.

In this issue, we spotlight three programs that have brought the handbook to life: Memphis Fire’s innovative navigator model, North Memorial’s in-home care approach, and Chesterfield County’s data-driven impact on frequent 911 callers.

These stories focus on their programs inceptions. They’re not just examples, they’re proof that MIH works when communities commit to doing it right.

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When 911 Isn’t the Answer: How Memphis Is Rerouting Care—Not Just Calls

Kevin Spratlin, who leads the Memphis Fire Department’s innovative Healthcare Navigator Program, discusses how their mobile integrated healthcare/community paramedicine model redirects low-acuity calls away from traditional emergency response—using the RADAR rapid assessment and redirection pilot to send a paramedic-physician team instead of an ambulance for non-emergent incidents. The program has consistently reduced ambulance overuse, freed up EMS capacity for critical calls, and improved patient navigation into appropriate community-based care services

Paramedics with a Stethoscope and a Strategy: Minnesota’s House-Call Healthcare Revolution

North Memorial Health has introduced a community paramedic program serving Hubbard, Cass, and Becker counties in Minnesota, delivering preventive and chronic-care services directly in patients’ homes via specially trained paramedics with extra education beyond traditional EMS roles. Patients—typically referred by primary care providers or EMS teams—receive weekly visits that may include lab draws, vital checks, medication review, and care coordination to help them remain healthy and avoid hospital readmissions

Chesterfield’s MIH Unit: Cutting 9‑1‑1 Use in Half and Initiating On‑Scene Addiction Care

Chesterfield County (VA) Fire & EMS' Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) program brings together a network of firefighter‑paramedics, mental health peer specialists, and community agencies to proactively manage frequent 9‑1‑1 callers and patients with chronic needs—redirecting them from repeated ER visits toward appropriate community care. Since launching in 2013, the unit has handled nearly 1,900 cases and reduced emergency calls from engaged participants by 49%, while also pioneering onsite Suboxone initiation post-opioid overdose to boost recovery outcomes