Ready Responders, REMSA Announce MIH-CP Partnership
Ready Responders and the Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority (REMSA) has announced today the formation and launch of a program intended to improve population health and patient care, as well as reduce the unnecessary use of emergency medical services—particularly for at-risk populations.
Ready Responders is an on-demand group of EMTs, paramedics, nurses, and other healthcare professionals that support their community by providing mobile health visits to assist patients with managing their health problems and reducing unnecessary use of the emergency medical system. REMSA is a nationally recognized emergency medical services provider based in Reno, Nevada and has provided ground and air ambulance service across the region for more than three decades.
“Our goals are simple: to provide quality care to patients, to expand access to care to those in need, and to improve the overall health of those in our community,” said Justin Dangel, CEO and co-founder of Ready Responders. “By partnering with REMSA, we believe we will be able to achieve that goal.”
“As a high performance and high-value healthcare delivery system, REMSA has a responsibility to our patients and healthcare partners to improve the quality and experience of care while reducing the cost of healthcare,” said Dean Dow, president and CEO, REMSA. “This trailblazing alliance between REMSA and Ready Responders advances those objectives by delivering care to patients at home when a visit to the emergency room isn’t needed.”
Through this alignment of out-of-hospital services, the two organizations will navigate patients to the right level of care, thereby working to reduce preventable use of the emergency medical system and unnecessary hospital readmissions by providing quick response mobile health visits to non-emergent patients.
The partnership will begin with the Washoe County launch of Ready Responders’ Community Care Services program. This program focuses on connecting Ready Responders’ paramedics or EMTs with patients and providing in-home care services that address the important factors of overall health such as nutrition, stable housing, reliable transportation, social support and access to neighborhood health services.
The second component to the partnership allows REMSA to link patients to the Ready Responder program through a referral from REMSA’s Nurse Health Line. Patients are transferred into the Nurse Health Line when their 911 call is determined by international medical protocols to be non-emergent. At the completion of the Nurse Health Line phone call and depending on the nurse’s recommended level of care, a Ready Responder provider may be dispatched to the caller’s location. The Responder will assess the patient’s condition in-person by getting baseline vital signs and observing signs and symptoms and will connect the patient via telehealth technology to a mid-level or physician provider extending the reach of the community’s medical services without the patient having to leave the home. Based on the recommendation of that provider, the Responder may assist the patient with the next steps in their care including things like making an appointment with a primary care physician, obtaining a prescription or arranging EMS or non-EMS transportation to the appropriate level of care. Ready Responders does not replace 9-1-1 for life-threatening emergencies.
Ready Responders will also support REMSA’s Community Paramedicine Program by providing Community Care Services to at-risk patients as part of the new partnership. REMSA’s Community Paramedicine program centers around at-home visits to at-risk patients to assist them in dealing with chronic illnesses, thereby reducing unnecessary use of the emergency medical system.
“REMSA has a long history of advancing the mobile health industry through pioneering programs,” said Dow. “This partnership will transform the delivery of mobile healthcare and will create an opportunity for sustainable, meaningful, community-wide health and wellness—particularly for citizens that are at-risk or vulnerable.”
Ready Responders will contact at-risk patients or caregivers of at-risk patients who have been identified by Ready Responders as potentially eligible for Community Care Services, enrollment in which is subject to approval by the patient’s health plan. If the at-risk patient meets the requirements to receive Community Care Services, Ready Responders will provide the services.
“Innovative partnerships such as this are the future of patient care,” said Ready Responders’ Senior Vice President of Business Relations Jared Oscarson. “Not only do they help create better access to care for all patients—particularly those who are economically strained—they’re also key to helping reduce response times and improving total community health.”
This piece appeared in EMSWorld on 1/24/2020
