EMS System Advanced Practice Paramedic

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

The Wake County EMS System Advanced Practice Paramedic (APP) is a new program designed to match specially-trained paramedics with the most sensitive patients, prevent emergencies in some high-risk patient populations, and seek further care for those patients who may be better served at locations other than local hospital emergency departments. The APP program exceeds most traditional lone-paramedic systems whereby the individual paramedic merely supports basic-care ambulances. The Wake County model augments a paramedic-level ambulance response with experienced paramedics who have high-frequency exposure and involvement in critical patient care interventions. The Advanced Practice Paramedics also engage in preventive home-visits designed to decrease medical crises and improve the overall well being of patients. APPs also identify and place mental health patients and substance abusers in facilities more appropriate for their care than the emergency department. The combination of these specialized skills have resulted in an efficient team of practitioners that improve emergency response care, lessen the need for some EMS responses, and facilitate the right care for some citizens that may otherwise be “lost in the system.”