Cy-Fair Fire Department is partnering with a telemedicine company to connect non-emergency patients with physicians at dispatch, which officials said will reduce strain on EMS responders and costs for residents calling 911.
The Harris County Emergency Services District No. 9 board of commissioners unanimously approved the agreement with RightSite Health Physicians during a Jan. 22 regular board meeting, with Commissioner Rob Paiva absent. EMS Director Justin Reed said the partnership comes at no cost to the district.
How it works
Reed said when CFFD’s dispatch receives 911 calls for non-emergency situations, such as stomach pain or high blood pressure, they can connect to telehealth services through RightSite within about 30 seconds before sending an ambulance to the scene. The partnership will reduce burnout for the EMS teams responding in the field to non-acute patients as well as minimize the cost of care for residents calling 911, he said.
RightSite’s services would not be considered in emergency cases like cardiac arrest or car accidents, so there wouldn’t be a delay in EMS response to time-sensitive situations, Reed said. Additionally, all patients must consent to the telehealth option and can request an ambulance instead at any time.
“We’re trying to break that model of using the most expensive means of transportation, an ambulance, to get to the most expensive means of healthcare by putting a physician upstream,” Reed said during the board meeting.
All RightSite providers are board-certified ER physicians, a representative from the company said. The company bills directly with the patient’s insurance carrier and serves uninsured patients as well, he said.
More details
RightSite provides a two-week follow up for every patient who visits with a telehealth doctor to ensure they understand their care plan, the representative said. The company can also connect patients to urgent care providers and other clinics as deemed appropriate.
“We’re strictly patient first, in fact our doctors don’t even know the status of the patient pay wise until after the care plan is created,” the representative said. “If that means sending them back to EMS, that’s what we’ll do.”
Reed said only about 10% of the patients EMS responds to need a time-sensitive and life-saving intervention. Offering a telehealth option before dispatching an ambulance allows responders to focus their time on emergency calls, he said.
CFFD currently uses Tele911 to connect residents to telemedicine care and will continue to do so, Reed said, but paramedics must respond to the scene before they can recommend the virtual option.
“The best solution is to get upstream of the problem, to not have the response,” Reed said.
Looking forward
CFFD command staff will update the board with data on the number of callers who choose to use RightSite’s services after approximately six months to one year of the program, officials said during the meeting.
“I’m definitely on board with this knowing that the patient has the option to say, ‘Yes I would like to speak to a physician, or no I would like to have the ambulance,’ so we’re not making that decision for them,” board President Naressa MacKinnon said during the meeting. “This is fantastic especially with the act of care and helping the patients get to the specialties they need.”
