Ambulances offer option to go to urgent care

For patients with minor injuries and illnesses in three area cities, an ambulance ride may soon take you to an urgent care center instead of an emergency room.

Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley’s fire department and ambulance services are participating in a statewide pilot project that studies whether paramedics with advanced training can safely triage and transport 911 patients with minor conditions to urgent care centers instead of hospital emergency rooms.

The OC Alternate Destination Pilot Project, which is sponsored by the Orange County Fire Chiefs Assn., is one of several pilot projects being studied by cities throughout California.

Other cities are currently studying the feasibility of paramedics following up with hospital patients after they have been discharged; making wellness checks for patients with chronic conditions; and connecting frequent emergency callers with social services in an effort to reduce the number of people using local hospitals.

The statewide pilot program has been spurred by parameters set by the Affordable Care Act that mandates that medical professionals work to improve patient care, but reduce costs, said Newport Beach EMS Division Chief Cathy Ord during a presentation to the City Council Tuesday.

“In order to be sustainable, we need to think about and be innovative about bringing new ways to provide healthcare,” she said.

As part of the program, if patients in Newport, Huntington and Fountain Valley are suffering from minor cuts, soft tissue injuries, other small wounds or minor illnesses, and there’s a paramedic that has been trained through the program in the ambulance, the patient will likely be asked whether he can be transported to an urgent care center instead of the hospital for treatment.

The patient has to consent to participate in the program and is able to select from a list of urgent care centers.

Local hospital systems like St. Joseph Hoag Health, MemorialCare and Kaiser Permanente partnered with the Orange County Fire Chiefs Assn. two years ago to get the pilot program up and running.

The project launched on Sept 14 and is expected to last at least one year. So far, no one has elected to participate, but Ord said she expects to see willing participants in the coming weeks.

“It’s going to take a while for the public to adjust since they’re used to calling 911 and going to the hospital,” she said.

Several city council members, including Keith Curry, spoke in favor of the program for its ability to cut costs and lessen the impact on hospital emergency departments.

“This is where medicine needs to go,” Curry said.

The pilot is a type of community paramedicine, which expands the role of paramedics and emergency medical technicians allowing them to provide healthcare services directly to residents.

Community paramedicine has been successful in other states that have a gap in their healthcare services, but is not practiced in California because ambulance services are reimbursed only when the patient is taken to the emergency room.

The OC Fire Chiefs Assn. secured roughly $272,000 in grants from local hospitals to combat the lack of reimbursement for the program.

However, industry watchers say community paramedicine is something that could be more widely used in the future to help lessen the strain on local hospitals.

“It’s definitely history in the making,” Ord said.