Leggett Announces Innovative Program to Serve Frequent Users of Ambulance Services More Efficiently & Effectively

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, November 15, 2017

County Executive Ike Leggett today announced that he is sending to the County Council a supplemental appropriation of more than $400,000 to begin to fully implement a bold, new program to serve frequent callers for County ambulance services more effectively and with better health outcomes.

The Montgomery County Mobile Integrated Healthcare program is a collaborative effort by the County Fire & Rescue Service and the County Department of Health & Human Services designed to reduce the growth rate of system demands on the County’s Emergency Medical Services and provide better health care for County residents who are frequent ambulance users.

“This supplemental appropriation, totaling $404,006, will implement the Montgomery County Mobile Integrated Health care project,” said County Executive Ike Leggett.  “This program follows a pilot project we did that involved ‘super-users’ of our ambulance services. By targeting these individuals with the medical and social services they needed, we were able to reduce EMS calls from these individuals by more than half and – most importantly --   made sure these County residents were getting the help they needed on the front end.”

“When a resident accesses 911 several times within a short time frame, there is often a greater, unmet need that must be addressed,” said County Fire & Rescue Service Chief Scott Goldstein.  “Frequent users of 911 tend to be economically disadvantaged and underinsured and more often than not use hospital emergency departments for their primary care. This program seeks to assist those with these other needs to receive better and more integrated, primary and behavioral health care.”

“Our collaboration with FRS/EMS over the past year has shown that by connecting residents to appropriate healthcare and psychosocial interventions we can improve their quality of life and save unnecessary transports to emergency rooms which are costly and traumatic,” said Uma Ahluwalia, director of Montgomery County Health & Human Services.

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Release ID: 17-439
Media Contact: Patrick Lacefield, 240.777.6507