infoseeker

Thanks for your input so far. Keep 'em coming.

Hello everyone. I'm currently working for the Detroit Wayne County Health Authority, an organization dedicated to assuring access to health services and improving the health status of residents in Wayne County, MI. As part of our mission, we aim to better coordinate existing services and explore new solutions to better serve the safety-net population (Medicaid and uninsured patients). As a result, I'm interested in learning a little more about EMS, inappropriate use of EMS, and how your respective units handle non-urgent patients/calls. What is your standard protocol for non-urgent matters? If the patient desires to go to the ER in spite of the fact that you determine no medical need, what can/do you do? Can you take them to a nearby primary care clinic? Urgent-care clinic instead of the ER? Is inappropriate use of EMS a real/common problem? Do any of your units have a medical van/shuttle which handles non-urgent calls or patients? If not, what type of measures/programs would you suggest to reduce unnecessary ER visits? If a non-urgent medical van/shuttle were created, how would you envision it functioning in conjunction with current EMS practices, protocols, etc.? Any response to my questions would be greatly appreciated. In addition, do you know of any good Web sites, articles, etc. which shed additional light on unnecessary ER visits from inappropriate use of EMS? Thank you for your insights and expertise. Feel free to check out our Web site at www.dwcha.org for more info.