EVERETT, Wash. — A fire district and a fire department are teaming up thanks to a grant from a local health commission to expand a community paramedic program.
The Verdant Health Commission is providing a grant of more than $1 million to fund the program for the next three years. “This partnership with Verdant and the Lynnwood Fire Department will strengthen and expand community paramedic service to reach more of our most vulnerable citizens,” said Fire District Chief Ed Widdis.
The program will serve the unincorporated communities of south Snohomish County and the cities of Brier, Edmonds, Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace.
Capt. Shaughn Maxwell, head of Fire District 1’s EMS Division, described the community paramedic program as “a health care early-warning system.”
“Our emergency responders are in a position to know that someone needs help before anyone else. Many of these patients end up being frequent 911 callers and are referred by firefighters to the community paramedic for follow-up services,” Maxwell said. “Through our community paramedic program, they can connect these patients to the health and social service they need.”
Fire District 1 and Lynnwood Fire Department initiated separate community paramedic programs over the last two years.
“Working together creates efficiencies and opportunities for this program to have a greater impact in the communities we serve,” Lynnwood Fire Chief Scott Cockrum said.
The South Snohomish County Community Resource Paramedic Task Force includes one community paramedic from each agency, a community resource specialist and a part-time administrative assistant to enter data, run reports and build files so the rest of the team can spend more time in the field working with patients.
“We’ve already seen the community paramedic can be a strong tool to enhance patient care and reduce health care costs, and we want to build on that,” Maxwell said.
In 2014, patients in Fire District 1’s community paramedic program saw a 36 percent reduction in 911 calls and a nearly 12 percent reduction in emergency room visits. For the first half of this year, 911 calls were reduced by more than 50 percent and emergency room visits were reduced by 43.2 percent for patients receiving community paramedic services.
“We learned a lot in our first year and now have built relationships with community partners so we’re better at connecting patients with the help they need,” Maxwell said.
About a third of community paramedic patients surveyed had been trying to connect with community services for at least six months prior to their involvement in the program. “These are patients who would otherwise remain invisible to other health and social service systems that could help them. I like to say this program makes the invisible people visible in our community,” Maxwell said.