EL CAJON, Calif. — A first-of-its-kind program that diverts less-serious 911 calls to nurses is expanding in east county. It's showing progress in cutting down on emergency room visits. This helps free up the E.R. and allow crews to respond to more calls.
Often times a 911 call results in an emergency response. This new program can divert non life-threatening calls to nurses who decide the next best steps instead of the E.R.
"What we find is sometimes the community doesn't know of other options outside the emergency room and with volumes increasing at emergency rooms across the country this is a good option," said Paul Larimore, the director of emergency services at Sharp.
Dispatchers ask a series of questions to learn the seriousness of the call and if it can be handled by the nurses.
"You call 911, goes to dispatch. We have nurses in Texas certified in California who will direct that patient to the most appropriate level of care which quite honestly might not be the emergency department," Christian Wallas, CEO of Grossmont Healthcare District.
The nurses recommend next steps outside of the E.R. which could include telling a caller to visit urgent care, primary care doctor visit, medical advice for a person to treat themselves at home or telehealth.
"We're trying to reduce offload times at our very busy emergency department. we found if we work as a team to solve those issues we can find much more progress," Wallas, said.
This program was launched in El Cajon over a year and a half ago. Since then, nurses have successfully redirected more than 750 people to appropriate alternative care options. The program is now expanding to Lemon Grove and La Mesa, and will soon be available to residents of Santee, San Miguel Fire District, Alpine, Lakeside, and Bonita.
"The goal is that we can make this permanent and expand it to wider areas. it's the first of its kind in the state of California," said Vint Koch, the chief of Heartland Fire and Rescue.
This new expansion of the program will grow it from serving around 100,000 people in El Cajon to more than 600,000 residents across east county.