Mich. EMS Agency to Launch ET3 Model by Summer

MLive.com, Walker, Mich.

A new ambulance program aims to save patients from costly emergency room trips.

A new Jackson Community Ambulance program allows paramedics to treat patients in-home or take them to primary care physicians or urgent care instead of straight to an emergency room, JCA Public Information Officer Marc Breckenridge said.

“I would guess most people don’t like taking trips to the emergency room, whether it’s in an ambulance or just driving themselves in a car,” Breckenridge said. “The convenience factor is there but it also relieves the healthcare system of the burden where patients come in that really don’t need the high-tech emergency room that costs a lot of money.”

Paramedics in ambulances will respond to calls and evaluate whether patients need to be taken to the emergency room or if an alternative treatment will work, Breckenridge said. If they do not need emergency transportation, a Teladoc interview with a doctor will assess the patient and decide if in-home treatment works or if they need to be taken somewhere else.

The program should begin by summer, Breckenridge said. There are contracts that need to be finalized and extra training for paramedics before it can start, he said.

The five-year program—Emergency Triage, Treat and Transport—is federally funded through Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, a news release states. The center will collect data from the program to see if the alternatives are cost effective, the release said.

“Whether you have Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross, Aetna, that trip to the emergency room is going to cost you money,” Breckenridge said. “It’s going to cost you a lot more money than if we were to provide you with an alternate kind of care.”

Huron Valley Ambulance, which covers Washtenaw County, is also participating in the program.