Hi there,
Tulsa Fire has spent 10 years showing that home visits cut 911 calls. San José just started a pilot that has six months to make the same case. This week is about what the veterans know, and what the newcomers will have to prove fast.
Table of Contents:
Tulsa Fire's 10 years of home visits, and the pill mistake a 911 crew missed
San José's six-month pilot, Bryan Fire's diverted calls and Connecticut's first state-designated MIH program
Resources: $50K CARESTAR grants and three November conferences
Policy Brief: why Texas EMS chiefs want a $63.9M grant program rewritten
Read Time: 3 minutes
Program Spotlight
On a home visit, Tulsa Fire's mobile integrated healthcare team asked a patient to walk them through their medications and found the patient was splitting pills the wrong way, an error that had slipped past an emergency response. EMS Chief Justin Lemery calls the approach "teach back": the patient explains the plan in their own words before anyone leaves.
Ten years after the program started as TFD Cares, the team's 2025 clients called 911 74% less and went to the emergency department nearly half as often. Some had been calling 911 150 to 200 times. The full story covers how Tulsa finds those callers, and what Lemery thinks the rest of the health system still gets wrong.
Who to Contact:
City of Tulsa (Tulsa Fire EMS Chief Justin Lemery)
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Program Roundup
Ten Years In, Six Months to Prove It
The fire department's new Mobile Care Unit started October 1, working four days a week around six fire stations downtown and nearby. See who it's built for and how residents get referred.
A new ambulance costs more than $500,000 to buy and about $1 million a year to run. Program director Kevin Farmer explains what his community paramedics find in homes that a 911 crew wouldn't.
Backus Hospital and American Ambulance expect to see up to 1,200 patients a year across 10 towns around Norwich. The state's public health commissioner explains why the 2019 law sat unfunded.
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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.
Waiting on your state's RHTP round? Several states ran Rural Health Transformation Program rounds for community paramedicine between May and September. If yours hasn't, ask your state Office of Rural Health or EMS office when year-two money will be announced.
On the Calendar
Colorado State EMS Conference, Keystone, November 5 to 8
Ohio Mobile Integrated Healthcare Workshop, Columbus, November 6. Register by November 1.
National Conference on EMS, Atlantic City, November 17 to 20
Policy Brief: Texas EMS Chiefs Want a $63.9M Rural Ambulance Grant Rewritten
EMS leaders took their case to the Texas House Committee on State Affairs on September 22. The program's next application window closes January 31, 2027.
What it funds: the Rural Ambulance Service Grant Program has sent $63.9 million to 150 counties so far.
The complaint: Seminole EMS Chief Carly French, testifying for the Texas EMS Alliance, says counties that contract with a single EMS provider can be shut out, providers get one grant a year, and too little equipment qualifies.
The other side: the Texas Comptroller's office says current law keeps ambulances in the counties that pay for them, and awards are based on need.