skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Trump vows to pursue executions after Biden commutes most of the federal death row; Mississippi group working in 71 counties to end homelessness in Mississippi; Farmers no longer feeling Farm Bill anguish, but relief might be fleeting; Addressing Montana's expanding 'news deserts.'

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

President-elect Donald Trump considers reclaiming Panama Canal. Lawmakers are uncertain Trump's cabinet will help everyday Americans and, advocates feel Biden must reconsider clemency actions.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Rural folks could soon be shut out of loans for natural disasters if Project 2025 has its way, Taos, New Mexico weighs options for its housing shortage, and the top states providing America's Christmas trees revealed.

Paramedics Meet Folks Where They're Comfortable to Prevent Hospital Stays

play audio
Play

Monday, July 27, 2020   

MEDFORD, Ore. -- First responders are reaching beyond emergencies to support people in southern Oregon.

Mercy Flights is the emergency transportation provider in Jackson County. Meg Wills, population health portfolio manager with the coordinated-care organization Jackson Care Connect, said her organization collaborates with Mercy Flights so a team of specially trained paramedics can implement a unique support system for people who frequently come to the hospital.

"What Mercy Flights mobile integrated paramedics are able to do is to wrap care around people when they've been identified in those acute settings and really ensure that they get linked to the services that will hopefully prevent those members from going back into a hospital," Wills said.

She said the team offers up to 30 days of transitional support after someone is discharged, including providing a home assessment and help such as educating people about their medications.

Sabrina Ballew is supervisor of Mercy Flights' integrated health care program. She said paramedics in this program can assess folks anywhere.

"We will meet them wherever they're comfortable," Ballew said. "So this could be on a street corner, a coffee shop, in their homes."

The team has a number of solutions at their disposal. They can connect people with medication-assisted treatment for substance abuse disorders or deliver food boxes - which has been especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ballew said help can be as simple as getting someone's medication.

"So they'll get discharged home but they don't have transportation back to get their medication or their medications weren't ready for them or they're just not strong enough or understand the process," she said. "So our team will actually go out and pick up their medications for them and deliver them to their homes."

Wills said 75% - 80% of the people they reach out to engage the program. She said one of the most powerful assets is how mobile the paramedics are.

"They're out in the community and they're really reaching out to people in these moments when there's an opportunity to really reflect and think about, 'What is it that I need right now in order not to come back?'" She said.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Juana Valle's well is one of 20 sites tested in California's San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast regions in the first round of preliminary sampling by University of California-Berkeley researchers and the Community Water Center. The results showed 96 parts per trillion of total PFAS in her water, including 32 parts per trillion of PFOS - both considered potentially hazardous amounts. (Hannah Norman/KFF Health News)

Environment

play sound

By Hannah Norman for KFF Health News.Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the KFF Health News-Public News Ser…


Environment

play sound

Animal rights organizers are regrouping after mixed results at the ballot box in November. A measure targeting factory farms passed in Berkeley but …

Environment

play sound

Farmers in Nebraska and across the nation might not be in panic mode anymore thanks to another extension of the Farm Bill but they still want Congress…


Immigration law experts say applying for asylum status can be very lengthy, and that programs such as Temporary Protected Status can fill the void for people fleeing violence elsewhere in the world. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

With 2025 almost here, organizations assisting Minnesota's Latino populations say they're laser focused on a couple of areas - mental health-care …

Social Issues

play sound

A new report found Connecticut's fiscal controls on the state budget restrict long-term growth. The controls were introduced during the 2018 budget …

As of August, enrollment in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System had reached 66,114 students, representing an increase of 8.4%, according to state data. (Adobe Stock/AI generated image)

Social Issues

play sound

Nearly a dozen changes could be made to the Kentucky Community and Technical College system, under Senate Joint Resolution 179, passed by lawmakers …

Social Issues

play sound

By Jessica Scott-Reid for Sentient.Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for Arkansas News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collab…

play sound

By Julieta Cardenas for Sentient.Broadcast version by Freda Ross for Texas News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collaboration …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021