By Janice Phelan
The Kansas City Star
LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — A partnership between Lee’s Summit’s largest retirement community and metro-area healthcare facilities is helping people struggling with a mental-health crisis receive more timely care while also freeing up emergency room beds.
Beginning in late 2022, John Knox Village began transporting mental-health patients using its behavioral health van and three ambulances. Since the effort’s launch, the Village has provided transportation for more than 1,700 patients, according to Brian Opoka, director of public safety at John Knox Village.
It is anticipated that the Village will transport around 2,400 mental-health patients in 2024 as the need for this service continues to grow. Of these individuals, a little over half are younger than 30. The majority of the patients are transported in the mental-health van, with the ambulances occasionally used.
“John Knox Village’s mission is to enrich lives and build community,” Opoka said. “Many don’t realize that work to accomplish our mission extends well beyond our campus. We provide multiple healthcare services, including the Village ambulance service and behavioral-health van, to the community members of the Kansas City metro area.”
In recognition of this partnership, John Knox Village received an Excellence in Service Award last fall from LeadingAge Missouri.
For some time, the Village has worked with local hospitals to coordinate EMS services on a daily basis. The idea for this unique partnership began to take shape as part of these ongoing communications. The retirement community’s Behavioral Health Van Transportation Service is a hybrid of two similar programs, one in California and the other in Florida. Opoka said he had the idea for the service while working on a research paper for his bachelor’s degree in public administration at Park University.
When a patient is admitted to the ER for a mental health crisis, the staff must provide one-to-one monitoring for the safety of the patient, Opoka said.
“This high level of care takes precious staff time and can take bed space away from other patients who have more time-critical diagnoses,” he said. “In the meantime, the patient having the mental health crisis is not receiving adequate treatment like they would receive from an in-patient facility that specializes in mental health.”
These patients can remain in the ER for hours and occasionally even days as they wait for a bed to open in a psychiatric center, he said.
“Once placement is found for the patient, traditionally EMS is then called to transfer the patient,” Opoka added. “Unfortunately, these patients are triaged below calls for trauma patients or those with time-critical diagnoses like a stroke or heart attack.”
Thanks to this partnership, these patients’ needs are given a higher priority, allowing them to get the care they need while also reducing stress on overcrowded emergency rooms. Once a request is made, Opoka said the average wait time for the Village’s behavioral health van is 40 minutes, while the wait time for an EMS ambulance service can be much longer.
“Finally, ambulances can respond to calls to treat and transport patients with other medical needs,” he added.
The nine facilities served through the Village partnership are included in Saint Luke’s Healthcare System as well as the HCA system.
The Village provides emergency medical services to its residents, including transportation, by employing 27 full-time staff members and 10 as-needed employees in this area. They include paramedics and emergency medical technicians. Beyond the staff members’ EMS training, each employee working on the behavioral-health van completes a behavioral-health first aid course, Opoka said.
These positive outcomes for patients, healthcare facilities, emergency responders and John Knox Village came about thanks to an ongoing collaboration within the metropolitan area, Opoka said.
“The Village has been successful in launching the service because of the close working relationship it has with area hospitals,” he said.
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