Post by district5 on Jun 7, 2009 21:27:52 GMT -5
Frequent 911 callers may get counseling
By Jane Prendergast • jprendergast@enquirer.com • June 7, 2009
More changes could come to Cincinnati's busy ambulance system - including hiring nurses to triage calls, sending outreach workers to counsel frequent 911 callers about other ways to get medical help.
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The big question is how much the changes could cost and how to pay for them in light of a budget deficit that could reach $40 million next year. Councilman Jeff Berding, who started the task force that has worked for more than a year, hopes he'll have the votes when the issue comes up again at council's law committee June 16.
"The burden (on the fire department) is extraordinary," Berding said, referring to the current "you call, we haul" system that generally takes anyone to a hospital who wants to go. The city's 10 ambulances transported people to hospitals more than 25,000 times in 2008, or 70 times every day. About a quarter of those trips required advanced medical care from paramedics.
The ambulance fleet was increased to 12 this January after the initial recommendations by a task force that studied the issue more than a year. That task force's subsequent report, out last week, also suggests:
Training all dispatch staff to use the medical priority dispatch system, which asks a series of questions to determine whether the caller has a life-threatening emergency and walks the calltaker through ways to help, including CPR. Now, about a third of all medical emergency calls are answered by staff members who aren't trained to use the priority system, meaning those calls aren't triaged appropriately, the report says, and can lead to inefficient allocation of EMTs and paramedics;
Working with the Metro bus system to help people get to medical appointments and to develop an education program to encourage people to take the bus to appointments;
Creating a response unit from fire and health departments, psychiatric services and social services to visit the homes of frequent 911 callers, to figure out what those people really need and help them get it.
The report does not say how much any of the recommendations could cost. But Berding points out that spending money to make the changes will save money later, including in costs of operating and staffing the ambulances.
He also said the changes could increase quality of care from the emergency medical technicians and paramedics, who would be less busy and tired if unnecessary hospital trips stopped.
Overuse of the ambulance system came out in a 2005 study by a Virginia company hired to do a complete review of the Cincinnati Fire Department's operations following the 2003 death of Firefighter Oscar Armstrong III.
By Jane Prendergast • jprendergast@enquirer.com • June 7, 2009
More changes could come to Cincinnati's busy ambulance system - including hiring nurses to triage calls, sending outreach workers to counsel frequent 911 callers about other ways to get medical help.
Advertisement
Quantcast
The big question is how much the changes could cost and how to pay for them in light of a budget deficit that could reach $40 million next year. Councilman Jeff Berding, who started the task force that has worked for more than a year, hopes he'll have the votes when the issue comes up again at council's law committee June 16.
"The burden (on the fire department) is extraordinary," Berding said, referring to the current "you call, we haul" system that generally takes anyone to a hospital who wants to go. The city's 10 ambulances transported people to hospitals more than 25,000 times in 2008, or 70 times every day. About a quarter of those trips required advanced medical care from paramedics.
The ambulance fleet was increased to 12 this January after the initial recommendations by a task force that studied the issue more than a year. That task force's subsequent report, out last week, also suggests:
Training all dispatch staff to use the medical priority dispatch system, which asks a series of questions to determine whether the caller has a life-threatening emergency and walks the calltaker through ways to help, including CPR. Now, about a third of all medical emergency calls are answered by staff members who aren't trained to use the priority system, meaning those calls aren't triaged appropriately, the report says, and can lead to inefficient allocation of EMTs and paramedics;
Working with the Metro bus system to help people get to medical appointments and to develop an education program to encourage people to take the bus to appointments;
Creating a response unit from fire and health departments, psychiatric services and social services to visit the homes of frequent 911 callers, to figure out what those people really need and help them get it.
The report does not say how much any of the recommendations could cost. But Berding points out that spending money to make the changes will save money later, including in costs of operating and staffing the ambulances.
He also said the changes could increase quality of care from the emergency medical technicians and paramedics, who would be less busy and tired if unnecessary hospital trips stopped.
Overuse of the ambulance system came out in a 2005 study by a Virginia company hired to do a complete review of the Cincinnati Fire Department's operations following the 2003 death of Firefighter Oscar Armstrong III.