Print Article 6/17/2015 Janie Christner, HNA Vice President of Home Health, recently served as a valuable resource for an Altoona Mirror story on AMED bringing a community paramedic program to the local area.
AMED launching local paramedic program
June 17, 2015
By William Kibler (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) , The Altoona Mirror
AMED is launching a local version of a new national initiative that offers primary and preventive care - often at home - to patients the medical system handles clumsily.
Community paramedic programs look for gaps in local services to fill without encroaching on the territory of other agencies, according to AMED Executive Director Gary Watters.
AMED will target people who need help at home with meds or post-op instructions, but who don't qualify for home care nursing under Medicare or Medicaid, because they can walk too well, drive or their income is too high, according to Watters.
AMED will also help patients manage chronic illnesses like diabetes, which can lead to frequent calls for ambulances, the burdening of emergency rooms and the burgeoning of hospital costs.
The community paramedics will be an encyclopedia of referral options, Watters said.
And they'll travel in regular cars, preserving costly ambulance runs for real emergencies, Watters said.
Community paramedicine exists to "connect underutilized resources to underserved populations," according to the Community Paramedic Program website.
"It's a whole new concept," Watters said.
Funding for now is uncertain, however.
"We hope to convince insurance companies (to pay)," Watters said.
There's also a bill in the General Assembly that would allow the state's Medicaid program to reimburse the service.
Community paramedics in other areas of the state - including a program in Pittsburgh, where the concept was pioneered - have done health screenings at workplaces, home safety checks, community programs on asthma and the prevention of falls and instructional visits for new parents, according to a "white paper" published by the Pennsylvania Emergency Health Services Council.
Community paramedics work under direction of a physician, Christopher Montera of Colorado, a paramedic associated with the Community Paramedic website.
His group cooperates with home health agencies, often supplementing their work when home health funding doesn't provide enough weekly visits, he said. His group also sees homeless patients and patients in schools.
Because there are only two nurses for 28 schools in that area, educators have welcomed the paramedics to help with students who have asthma, diabetes, seizure disorders and other problems, he said.
In Nebraska, community paramedicine is helping preserve ambulance services for remote areas that don't have the emergency volumes to justify paying paramedics.
But that emergency volume is sufficient, when coupled with community work, Montera said.
While community paramedicine tends to be valuable in rural areas because of a lack of primary care doctors, it tends to be valuable in cities for keeping in check the illnesses of the "high utilizers" of emergency rooms, Montera said.
Ambulance usage is declining under pressure from the federal government, which wants to stop abuse of emergency rooms, according to Janie Christner, vice president for home health at the Home Nursing Agency in Altoona. So it's ironic that paramedics whose workloads are thus reduced are finding substitute work in further reducing unnecessary ambulance rides, Watters agreed.
"We liken it to fire safety," he said.
With fire prevention, firefighters ideally can work themselves out of business - although, that is practically impossible, as with ambulance services, he said.
Paramedics have "certificate" training, a two-year degree, Montera said. In their educational level, they are a bit behind registered nurses, most of whom have bachelor's degrees nowadays, he said. Next are nurse practitioners and physician assistants, then physicians, Montera said.
Christner doesn't have a problem with the community paramedic model, as she understands it.
"Anything to improve the health of the population," she said.
