News Feature | May 5, 2015

Fire Department Leverages Telemedicine To Slash Admissions

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Telehealth Dr. Video

In Houston, first responders are able to use telemedicine to identify which 911 calls are real emergencies and which can be treated on the scene.

A 2013 study of the Houston Fire Department conducted by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston found 40 percent of visits to Houston-area EDs in 2011 were for primary-care related issues. They also noted treating those issues in the ED cost an average of $600 to $1,200 per visit and transporting such patients to the ED also can prevent ambulance crews from responding to more urgent calls.

Kaiser Health News reports the Houston Fire Department responds to emergency calls that are, according to first responder Tyler Hooper, “Anything from simple colds to toothaches, stubbed toes to paper cuts. We make a lot of runs to where it’s not an emergency situation.

“And while we’re on that run, we hear another run in our territory, it could be a shooting, or a cardiac arrest, and now an ambulance is coming from further away and it’s extending the time for the true emergency to be taken care of. They don’t know they could walk into certain clinics without appointments or without insurance.” Calling 911 is “just what they’ve always done or what they’ve been taught.”

To combat the flood of non-emergency calls that come into the station, the department launched in December a telehealth program designed to reduce admissions to the emergency room. iHealth Beat reports that, although the program costs more than $1 million a year, officials are optimistic it ultimately will lower healthcare costs.

First responders are able to use a tablet based app to connect patients to doctors. This way, doctors are able to decide if each case needs to go to the emergency room or just an outpatient clinic. “I think a lot of people are very surprised that they can talk to a doctor directly and have been very happy with that,” says Dr. Michael Gonzalez, the program’s director and an emergency medicine professor at Baylor College of Medicine.