Individuals that are frequent users of emergency medical services (EMS) often have issues that can be more appropriately addressed with non-urgent care. Inappropriate utilization of 911 creates added financial burden in communities with limited health care resources.1 Community Health Paramedicine is an emerging field that extends the role of paramedics beyond the traditional emergency response.2 The goal of the current study is to evaluate the impact of a Community Health Paramedicine intervention through the Greater Longview Optimal Wellness (GLOW) protocol. The protocol has been established to reduce 911 calls, hospital emergency department (ED) visits, and admissions to hospitals among frequent users.
The Episcopal Health Foundation established the Texas Accountable Communities for Health Initiative (TACHI) in October 2020 (Episcopal Health Foundation, 2022). The GLOW organization was one of six TACHI organizations within the State of Texas. GLOW is a nonprofit (501C3) organization representing a multi-agency collaborative in the city of Longview and Gregg county in East Texas. GLOW’s mission is to:
- Identify the top utilizers of 911 system (8 calls or more);
- Enroll these top utilizers as potential clients in GLOW and navigate them to community service organizations that alleviate unmet needs of Non-Medical Drivers of Health (NMDOH); and
- Perform a community health paramedicine visit to reduce 911 system utilization and readmission rates.
The evaluation of the program includes both process evaluation and client outcomes evaluation. The challenges of evaluating this type of community-based health program include but are not limited to 1) getting unstructured data from multiple partners, 2) protecting identification information, 3) handling involved Personal Health Information (PHI), and 4) difficulties and feasibility of capturing service activities, especially from community partners.
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