Perspectives

Community Paramedicine and Mobile Integrated Health Care: Existing Resources Bringing New Benefits

Authors: Wendy J. Wilcoxson, DO, MBA, FACEP

Abstract

Internationally, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) providers often serve to not only provide emergency care and transportation but also act as a bridge between inpatient and outpatient care, typically through programs that provide a variety of home-based services arranged in conjunction with a physician’s oversight. Interestingly, one of the earliest projects, in Nova Scotia, Canada, drew inspiration from the 1996 American document EMS Agenda for the Future.1 This program, located on two remote islands requiring ferry and ground travel to access a hospital, used local EMS resources in collaboration with a nurse practitioner and off-site physician to provide health care to the community.2 In the setting of the cost consciousness of single payer healthcare systems and of geographically scarce resources, this approach only made sense; it minimized costly inpatient care by maximizing use of outpatient resources, and created improved patient outcomes and satisfaction.

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