Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:
Off-duty paramedics will make house calls to check on certain patients released from Northwest Community Hospital (NWCH) in Arlington Heights as part of a new pilot program involving two other agencies. Paramedics from the Palatine, Rolling Meadows, and the Palatine Rural fire departments are to collaborate in their coverage areas to work for Northwest Community’s mobile integrated health care pilot, which is designed to improve patient outcomes by reducing preventable hospital visits and re-admissions. Northwest Community has budgeted about $131,100 for the one-year pilot and will reimburse the public agencies for the paramedics and other expenses.
NWCH will provide notification about the patients needing the paramedic house calls within 12 to 48 hours of discharge.
Three or four paramedic house calls are projected for each patient. About nine paramedics from the three departments are expected to be available for the house calls to make sure the patients are following post-discharge directions.
Patients 18 and older will be eligible for the program which will focus on patients who were in the hospital and sent home to recover from heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia with a high risk for sepsis, or a major joint replacement.
Northwest Community will reimburse the fire departments a minimum of $135 per visit, covering the paramedics’ pay and other expenses. Data will be collected from 480 discharged patients for NWCH to evaluate the effectiveness of the mobile integrated health care pilot, documents show.
