Community Paramedic Program Rebecca Fessler Saint Joseph’s Hospital Social Worker, Inpatient Mental Health Unit & June Hove Saint Joseph’s Hospital Clinic Director, Inpatient Mental Health Unit & Inpatient Addiction Medicine Unit January 20, 2015

Community Paramedic Program 1/20/15

Community Paramedic Program Background –Began June 9, 2014 Approached by Paramedics looking for collaboration Started small with Mental Health unit – now added CD unit Provided education and training to Paramedics –Crisis stabilization –Shadowed staff, participated in groups, had 1:1 with patients –Introduced to patients –Starting August 11, 2014 schedule changes for paramedics to 8 hour shifts 4 days a week

Eligibility and Referral Process Began with Medicaid patients and now expanded to all patients Offered to patients who are discharged back to the community –Home, shelters etc. Give patients up to 12 visits

Program Part of discharge planning Obtain order for service Provides areas of service including: general/social interaction, vital signs, minor medical procedures, ECG tracing, immunizations/vaccinations, weight monitoring, laboratory collection, medication compliance, medication education, health assessment and wound checks

Positive aspects  Paramedics can administer IM medications  Assess home condition – patient discharged home and found eviction notice. Had been hospitalized 3 weeks and apartment a mess. They helped clean up apartment, organize bills and take her to get food  Check on follow up appointments and arrange transportation as needed  Crisis stabilization – patients call them and they can go to the patient or refer to urgent care or ED depending on situation  Set up medications – one patient had mistakenly set up medications to be taken at PM and was taking at AM  They don’t bring attention to the patient – they arrive in cars with HE Transportation stenciled on side instead of ambulance, they wear street clothes instead of uniforms  Patients love this service

Measurement

Termination from Program Follow up visits arranged by Paramedics Often save the last scheduled visit to evaluate progress

Questions?

Upcoming RARE Events…. RARE MH Collaborative Final Learning Day Tuesday February 24, :00am – 3:30pm Maplewood Community Center 2100 White Bear Avenue, Maplewood, MN Registration now open! Register here

Future webinars… To suggest future topics for this series, Reducing Avoidable Readmissions Effectively “RARE” Networking Webinars, contact: Kathy Cummings, Jill Kemper,