By Dayna Worchel
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Hundreds of times per year in Corpus Christi, someone calls for emergency services because of a backache or a missed dose of medication.
Maybe he or she has been released from a hospital and needs help with follow up care or a simple reminder to take medications. These problems aren’t life-threatening. But the calls come into 911 because the patient doesn’t know where else to turn.
Corpus Christi Fire Chief Robert Rocha said the department receives frequent calls from the same people to the 911 system. Between Jan. 1, 2013, and Oct. 1, 2013, 10 patients accounted for 582 calls for service, according to city statistics.
This segment of the population has a need for a special level of care, he said.
“These calls are often a cry for help; we have the responsibility to treat it as a valid call,” Rocha said.
The Fire Department, along with the Nueces County Health Department, is working to create a solution for these frequent nonemergency calls with a proposed community health program.
The program would employ specially trained staff to work with frequent users of emergency services. The staff would help these patients create a health care plan and follow up to make sure they go to doctor’s appointments and take medications.
The idea behind the program is to reduce emergency calls and save paramedics for the most serious calls, Rocha said.
“Of course, if anyone really needs 911, we want them to call,” he said.
If funding can be secured and the City Council approves, officials hope to launch the Community Health Program this summer.
The money to operate such a program, which Rocha estimates is about $500,000 per year, would come from various sources, including grants, hospitals, agencies and third party payers, according to the business plan Rocha submitted to the city. The Community Health Program also may be eligible for Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement. That $500,000 amount would include salaries, he said.
That could save taxpayers money. The city runs nearly 36,000 ambulance calls each year.
The program has worked well in other communities, including Austin, which has reduced calls from frequent 911 users by 75 percent, according to the submitted business plan.
Rocha said Del Mar College will provide paramedic training for the Community Health Program.
Paramedics will be certified as Community Health Workers, and the curriculum will concentrate on disease management, chronic conditions, mental health issues, and the use of community medical and social services.
“It’s a way to join case management, which the health department does, with rescue, which is what we do,” Rocha said of the program.
___
(c)2014 the Corpus Christi Caller-Times (Corpus Christi, Texas)
Distributed by MCT Information Services