Sunday, June 8, 2025
6/8/2025
Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Construction - It is the desire of the Columbus Fire & Emergency Medical Services Department to develop and pilot a mobile integrated healthcare (MIH) program to provide residents of Columbus and Muscogee County alternative resources for pre-hospital care. This initiative will free up EMS resources to more effectively manage medical emergencies in the community; decrease the influx of non-emergency visits to local emergency rooms; and provide residents more reliable, consistent and affordable healthcare. This initiative seeks to align a CFEMS Fire-Medic with a nurse practitioner from MercyMed of Columbus to form a MIH unit. The intent is to pilot a program to help quantify the need for this service in Muscogee County and show proof of concept for future local funding. The paramedic and clinician team would be provided a response vehicle (Ford Explorer or similar) and provide services at a resident’s home Monday through Friday during normal business hours. Potential ‘patients’ would be sourced from two areas: • Emergency service units dispatched to 9-1-1 calls that are deemed best managed by a MIH resource • Culled from data analysis of CFEMS responses to ‘high volume’ users (those residents who call for EMS five or more times a month) The CFEMS has identified that in 2022, 402 patients accounted for 3,172 calls for service. These high-volume (often disadvantaged) users often have chronic conditions or lack the resources to post-hospital care and thus over-utilize the system. The paramedic would be able to identify the call history with the user and work with the nurse practitioner to provide the appropriate education and resources to eliminate the need to call repeatedly for service. The CFEMS provides advanced life support care and emergency transport services. Fire apparatus and transport ambulances are staffed with advanced emergency medical technicians and/or paramedics and a cache of medical resources. These highly skilled personnel provide nearly forty thousand calls for medical service every year. In the first six months of 2022, data indicates that 59% of these calls for service did not require advanced life support (ALS) and can alternatively be managed with a basic life support (BLS) asset or an alternative resource (community paramedic, telemedicine, primary care physician, etc). In evaluating patient services, CFEMS has determined that providing an alternative method of medical intervention is largely preferred over a costly trip to the hospital with long wait periods. MercyMed of Columbus exists to provide affordable, quality healthcare for the underserved residents of Columbus. They recognize that low incomes and limited health insurance coverage force many in our community to forgo necessary care. Their mission is dedicated to the 49% of Muscogee County adults who reported they had problems or delays in accessing healthcare they need, and the 70% of adults with very low incomes who struggle to access care. Through the generous donations of charitable funding sources (individuals/families, foundations/grants, businesses, churches) MercyMed provides primary care services, dentistry, specialty care, dieticians, lab services, patient advocacy, physical therapy, and counseling services to residents.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).