For years, Daniel Frey was a firefighter and paramedic in the town of McKinney, Texas. He and his team realized that certain community members with health risks were making repeated calls to 911, resulting in a massive drain on community resources. So they took action.
They compiled a list of repeat callers, outfitted a truck with basic medical equipment, and began making house calls. They made regular check-ups to these members of the community, administering basic medical care and helping them stay on top of medications, doctor instructions, and general wellness.
The program was wildly successful in reducing costs, keeping patients out of ambulances and hospitals, and helping community members effectively manage their health and wellness. The community health model quickly began spreading to other cities around the country.
Traditionally, individuals in the community have limited options when it comes to time-sensitive medical needs. This means that minor emergencies often result in major costs to EMS, hospitals, and community fire stations.
Each time someone calls 911 for medical help, trucks and EMS teams are deployed, hospital resources are allocated, and costs quickly stack up. This is particularly true when it comes to high-risk, low-income members of the community with health conditions that make them likely to make multiple calls like these in a short span of time.
The problem? These programs were managed using a hodgepodge of programs, software, and methods.
CHP/MIH (community health program, mobile integrated health) teams were writing notes on the backs of their gloves during appointments, then typing information into a spreadsheet on their computers, then transferring that information to relevant medical records and communicating it piecemeal to relevant medical parties.
There was no unified application or platform for handling everything a CHP/MIH needed to excel in a streamlined, efficient way. That’s when Frey and his team partnered with Graphium Health, an established medical technology company, to create FieldMed.
FieldMed is the first complete solution for in-home community health programs, with everything CHP/MIHs need to serve patients better, track data more effectively, and reduce costs for communities and healthcare providers.
Find out what FieldMed can do for your organization and community.
