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Medstar Mobile Healthcare
MedStar Mobile
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HEALTHCARE
NEW CHALLENGES – NEW SOLUTIONS
As 2020 ended, we all looked forward to 2021 with hope for a return to something more like ‘normalcy’. But the start of 2021 brought continued challenges for the community, and MedStar. Thankfully, due to the strong partnerships and collaboration between MedStar, the City of Lake Worth, and your fire and police departments, your emergency medical services system rose to the challenges posed by the coronavirus, as well as Winter Storm Uri.
PRESERVING HEALTHCARE SYSTEM CAPACITY WHILE IMPROVING PATIENT SATISFACTION
The Challenge: Managing significant 911 EMS response volume and hospitalizations from the coronavirus. COVID-19 related 911 call volume peaked at an alltime high just after the holidays. On January 9th, 2021, MedStar crews treated 145 patients in one day with suspected or confirmed coronavirus illness. That record number represented 34% of the total patients treated that day. At the same time, hospital occupancy rates were at an unprecedented 89%, with ICU occupancy at 99%
The Solution: The Office of the Medical Director implemented a patient care protocol designed to navigate patients with low acuity, coronavirus likely medical symptoms to medical resources other than a hospital emergency department (ED). In these cases, MedStar or Lake Worth Fire Department personnel advise the patient that their symptoms are likely related to the coronavirus, provide the patient information on resources available to address their medical needs more appropriately, and do not take the patient to the ED. Instead, the patient is given printed materials that not only provide resource contact information, but also crucial information about steps they should take to prevent transmission of the virus to others. Since the protocol was implemented in March 2020, it has been used over 1,000 times to help with patient navigation and avoid preventable ED visits. Interestingly, when surveyed, 98.9% of the patients rated their satisfaction with this protocol as high or very high.
COVID VACCINE ADMINISTRATION
The Challenge: Providing vaccines to as many area residents as possible, as quickly as possible. Vaccinations are one of the key interventions to help mitigate the coronavirus pandemic and vaccinating large numbers of people is a significant undertaking.
The Solution: Tarrant County Public Health (TCPH) initiated vaccine administrations in December 2020, and MedStar has been supporting that effort in a number of ways. We began by staffing the TCPH vaccine clinic sites to serve as vaccinators, as well as medical support in the postvaccine recovery area. Additionally, MedStar is a CDC and state approved vaccine provider, and has been receiving vaccines directly from the state to support the vaccine effort. Due to MedStar’s ability to deliver ‘mobile’ medical care, we have been conducting community-based vaccine clinics in underserved areas of the community. These mobile clinic sites are easier for people to access, in an environment they are accustomed to, such as churches and community centers. These processes will continue well into the summer.
MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY (MAB) INFUSION TREATMENTS
The Challenge: Keeping patients diagnosed with the coronavirus from needing hospitalization. mAb infusion therapy is an evidence-based treatment that avoids hospitalizations by helping the body fight virus infection. People
diagnosed with COVID-19 with mild to moderate symptoms, and at-risk medical conditions, typically respond very well to mAb therapy.
The Solution: MedStar helped establish an initial mAb clinic to treat first responders and their immediate family members who meet mAb infusion clinical eligibility. This not only helped prevent hospitalizations, but dramatically reduced recovery time so that essential first response personnel could return to work sooner. That initial clinic has been expanded to a site at MedStar’s headquarters campus that is available to provide mAb infusions to other eligible patients.
WINTER STORM URI
The Challenge: Winter Storm Uri created a significant hardship on the residents of North Texas. Extreme cold, coupled with snow, and a failure of critical utilities (power and water supply) created a trifecta of events that stressed the emergency response system in ways never imagined. Response volume for Lake Worth Fire, Lake Worth Police and MedStar dramatically increased, during some of the harshest environmental conditions for first responders. MedStar experienced record response volume during the storm, with a total of 573 on-scene ambulance responses in one day. From February 14th through February 20th, MedStar crews arrive on scene to 3,484 calls; treated 168 people for hypothermia, 33 people for carbon monoxide poisoning, and managed 105 calls due to medical conditions related to power outages.
The Solution: To assure resource availability for the community, MedStar staffed additional units and worked with hotels immediately adjacent to our deployment centers to secure rooms for our personnel. Over 80 MedStar personnel stayed in local hotels to help assure they were able to safely travel to and from locations where they could rest between shifts. MedStar’s 911 communications center personnel performed extensive triage and prioritized calls that needed immediate medical response and scheduled non-critical 911 calls for a delayed ambulance response, or a response by a member of MedStar’s community paramedic team. In some cases, people called 911 for assistance with supportive oxygen devices that were failing due to the extended power outage. Even when a lowacuity response was delayed due to weather and resource availability, the 911 center staff kept in contact with callers to assure conditions had not changed, potentially necessitating a higher priority response. We activated our AMBUS, a specialized multi-patient vehicle with specialized equipment and staff to respond to multiple patients who needed transport either to the hospital or warming shelters. This preserved critical ambulance resources for higher priority responses.
Throughout these unprecedented challenges, your EMS system, including Lake Worth Fire and Police departments, responded admirably by working together with partner communities, finding solutions, and taking care of our patients and our community. We’ve never been more proud of our team and our community!
We are extremely blessed to have the opportunity to serve this community. It is an honor that we work tirelessly to earn every day and with every patient contact.
