EMS Innovations Program

High utilizers of emergency services are a drain on the healthcare system and often experience poor outcomes.

Greater Health Now (GHN) is seeking to bridge the gap of unmet healthcare needs through an innovative emergency medical services program: EMS Innovated, or EMSI. Modeled after the Abbeville County, South Carolina community paramedic program, and building on the principles of the PCMH model of care, the EMSI program aims to bridge the gap between unmet healthcare needs, high-cost care, and access to care. EMSI prepares first responders how to operate within a patient-centered medical home model of care, learning the skills of population health management, data management, and sustainability.

EMS Providers can address these potential gaps. By utilizing EMS staff in an expanded role but within their current scope of practice, they can provide non-emergent, low-acuity care that is consistent with the Medical Home Model. The GHN focus area is to reach a population of 1,000 unduplicated patients annually across the nine counties.

There are three main goals of EMSI:

1. Strengthening the primary healthcare delivery system
2. Implementing change in patient outcomes and reduced healthcare costs
   1. Reducing non-emergent 911 calls
   2. Reducing non-emergent ED visits
   3. Reducing inpatient hospital readmissions
3. Meeting unmet healthcare needs