Mayo EMS starts mobile health system

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — As part of a new pilot program, referred patients can now receive some assessments and services in their homes through Mayo Regional Hospital Emergency Medical Services (EMS) — services they may not otherwise be able to obtain.

    Mayo Regional Hospital EMS Department Leader Eric Young said the Community Mobile Health Systems began on Nov. 4, as one of 12 such pilot programs across the state. He said that members of the EMS department will visit patients’ homes, after the patient has been referred by their physician.
    “It’s pretty much staffed during business hours, Monday through Friday,” Young said. “We are concentrating to start on diabetic and cardiac patients, there’s a lot we can do in the field.”
    At the present time the service is available in Dover-Foxcroft to get the program up and running. Young said the plan is to expand the Community Mobile Health Systems to include all of Mayo Regional Hospital’s service area, which covers communities from Milo to Dexter and Guilford to Corinth.
    “Our goal is to help our patients with their health care education,” Mayo Regional Hospital EMS Community Mobile Health Systems Coordinator Megan Clark said. “We have told community members we are putting together a puzzle for our patients.” She explained this may include visiting patients to help them better understand the various medicines they take, and decrease potential incidents.
    Young said checking patient medications is just one of the services offered through the Community Mobile Health Systems. He said staff can also draw blood, perform an EKG, check a patient’s weight and other vital statistics. “We can do a safety inspection,” he said, such as to identify and solve safety hazards if a patient has difficulty walking.
    “EMS is always dealing with emergencies so we are being proactive with a new model trying to keep the community healthy,” Young said. “We are trying to reduce admission rates and readmission rates, making sure patients are staying healthy.” He said the Community Mobile Health Systems can work with Mayo Regional Hospital’s physical therapy and surgical departments to follow up with patients and draw blood for the hospital labs.
    “We don’t charge for the service,” Young said. “Most of the financing is through donations and grants, there is no money coming out of our budget.”
    “It was a year-long process to get started, we had a lot of support from the hospital,” Young said. “Megan’s put in a lot of work for the program.”
    Clark said the Community Mobile Health Systems will be a pilot program for the EMS for three years. “Hopefully after that it will be standard care for the state,” Young said.
    Those interested in learning more about the Community Mobile Health Systems through Mayo Regional Hospital EMS can talk to their primary care physician. They can also contact Clark at 564-3078 or mclark@MayoHospital.com.