San Juan Regional Medical Center’s COVID to Home (C2H) program has helped hundreds of COVID-19 patients manage their care at home. Now, the program is evolving to include home visits from our EMS First Responders.
“There are times we have to send EMS to the home to do a welfare check on the patient. They can decompensate so quickly we are constantly calling 911 for these patients to be transported to the Emergency Department,” Clinic Director Shaleen Brown said.
Patients who could benefit from an in-person assessment are visited by San Juan Regional Medical Center’s first responders who are partnering in their care. The home visits include getting a patient’s vitals, listening to their lungs and facilitating a video visit with the C2H provider.
“We have caught a couple of issues where people needed home oxygen ordered and have been able to work with the provider to determine if the patient truly needs an Emergency Room visit,” Paramedic Steven Malarchick said.
If a patient does need to go to the hospital, the first responders will facilitate an ambulance transport and will stabilize the patient the ambulance arrives. If everything is ok and time allows, they will even help out around the house if a patient needs it.
“It’s so different than working on the ambulance,” Malarchick said. “We get to spend more time with the patient instead of taking them right to the ER.”
Right now EMS is able to visit about four patients a morning. In between each one they must go through a thorough decontamination process and put on full PPE for the safety and protection of themselves as well as their patients. The group is proud to offer this type of community EMS to our COVID patients and plans to continue with the home visits for the foreseeable future.