Fire Rescue's Community Paramedicine program provides services in alignment with MCFR's  mission statement: To protect life and property with honor, compassion, & respect. 

The program's approach, mission, & purpose is to reduce health spending while improving the health status of  our county's residents. Community Paramedicine targets the uninsured & underinsured residents who currently lack access to primary care services, those residents who consistently use 911 services, & those who may seek readmission to the hospital post discharge. 

Access to healthcare, & particularly primary care services, is a growing concern within our community. Primary care providers are in short supply, & the uninsured population is on the rise. As a result, there has been high use of emergency services.

A large portion of our 911 services & subsequent emergency department visits fall are avoidable & results of patients seeking non-urgent care or emergency department care for conditions that could have been treated &/or prevented via a primary care provider.

This program will target the medically underserved who suffer from debilitating conditions that are not only caused by acute conditions (trauma, infectious diseases), but from chronic diseases that often require ongoing care & treatment. The program will be grounded in community-wide interventions aimed at disease prevention & wellness/health promotion. The Community Paramedicine program will work with the Florida Department of Health in Marion County to improve the health of the county’s population.

The Community Paramedicine program provides patient-centric services such as alternative destinations, homeless outreach, public health collaboration, in-home patient assessments, falls assessment, readmission avoidance, & care coordination. All program initiatives are team-based, integrating multiple providers comprised from both clinical & non-clinical roles to address all the unmet needs of our community’s vulnerable patients.

The target population to be served by Community Paramedicine program are identified by utilizing the previously defined social determinates & include the following groups:

• Current frequent users of the emergency department & emergency ambulance services (high-system utilizers);
• Persons currently receiving limited to no primary care preventive services or primary care treatment for their illness;
• Persons recently discharged from the hospital who would benefit from in‐home monitoring sessions to prevent complications;
• Persons with inadequately treated behavioral, mental health, or substance use disorders, including those with co-occurring medical problems;
• Persons with unmet social needs (targeting social determining factors of health); &
• Persons identified by the EMS system.