Over the past few years, some dedicated physicians and other emergency department team members have created a new program.
It's called Community Teleparamedicine. (I understand from the physician who created the program that he himself coined the word "teleparamedicine".) The program addresses patients sent home from the hospital, an outpatient clinic, or the emergency department in a tenuous state, who may not be sick enough to stay in the hospital or the emergency department, but may be just a little bit too sick to stay at home without some additional help.
The program sends a dedicated team of paramedics to the patient's home, where they do a series of assessments. The team checks on patient progress with acute problems and with chronic conditions that have had new treatment plans initiated in the emergency department, outpatient clinic, or on the inpatient wards. They make sure patients are taking medicines as prescribed and that they have adequate care at home. The team also addresses so many of the challenging issues our patients face when accessing at-home care for complex medical problems.
The paramedics livestream the visit with one of the emergency department attendings. Together with the patient, and their own home care team -- including home health aides, visiting nurses, and family members -- the paramedics go over active problems and help overcome challenges that the patient may be facing.
