Nearly every EMS system serving a metro area has a similar problem: A small group of “frequent fliers” (mostly homeless patients) use the 911 system to get medical care at an ED, costing the health care system millions of dollars—and untold wear on the responders who are the front line of a broken system.
In this publication we’ve reported on groundbreaking projects to case-manage these patients. While we’re pleased to present these innovative projects within our EMS community, we’re even happier when the mainstream media tackles the issue, as was the case with the U-T San Diego, the daily newspaper that serves this city of more than 1.4 million people.
The five-part series is the result of a collaboration between that paper and the nonprofit, nonpartisan California Healthcare Foundation, headquartered at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The series ran in consecutive days on the front page of the newspaper, citing research and accompanied by striking photography that captured the glum reality of these patients but also humanized them.
Jim Dunford, San Diego’s EMS medical director, identified 1,136 people who likely will use the EMS system at least six times a year, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $20 million, just for ambulance and paramedic charges alone. That’s less than 1 percent of the population, but more the 17 percent of costs.
“Imagine in the process of saving money, you could actually help these people,” Dunford told series writer John Gonzales.
To read this outstanding series, go to utsandiego.com/health-911. You can also download a free iBooks version from Apples iBookstore (search for U-T San Diego).
