Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire will host a Community Paramedicine Forum on Monday, July 20.  The event is sponsored by the Wisconsin Office of Rural Health.

The day will include news and updates on community paramedicine in Wisconsin, a health care model designed to improve access to and quality of care in rural and urban communities.

Presentations include:

EMS, hospitals, providers, and local and state elected officials are among those who should find the Forum helpful.  More information and how to register will be coming soon.

The Forum will be in Room 103A of the Chippewa Valley Technical College Business Education Center, 620 W. Clairemont Ave, Eau Claire.  The $25 registration fee includes continental breakfast and lunch.

Chippewa Valley Technical College would be willing to assist with the following:

1.  We see that Patrick Ryan asked for the identification of the stakeholders, thank you for that.

2.  Chippewa Valley Technical College would be willing to host a statewide forum related to the Community Paramedic discussion in the Aug-Sept timeframe in Eau Claire, WI.  We will work with Kevin from the Office of Rural Health on setting this up and making sure we have not missed any potential stakeholders or stakeholder groups.  I will check with our college scheduling about when we have availability for our conference center and provide a number of dates for consideration over the next few weeks.

3.  We need to start to collecting information as to where we see the gap in our state for Community Paramedic.  We realize this may be different for our communities but we should begin to start to narrow in on what our focus should be.  Using the hosptial partners that are beginning to attend this listserv and phone conferences maybe we can begin to find the common areas that we need to focus community paramedic onto.  This will lead us into where we need to focus the curriculm development for the State as well.

4.  We need to as a group develop a set of tallking points for our communities and stakeholders for conversation.  We agree that everyone is talking about it but maybe with PAAW, PFFW, WEMSA and State EMS Advisory Board we can develop some specific talking points for this project so that when we are meeting in our regions and discussing this we are all on the same page.

Chris McHenry, BS, CCEMT-P/RN
FireMedic/EMS Program Director/AHA Coordinator

Chippewa Valley Technical College
620 West Clairemont Ave
Eau Claire, WI  54701

cmchenry@cvtc.edu

715-855-7515 (work)
715-828-1254 (cell)
715-855-7519 (fax)

Please include Northeast WI Technical College (NWTC) in the any future dialogue regarding community-based EMS/Community Paramedic.  
FYI - please note that NWTC, in partnership with Shawano Ambulance, was awarded a $20,000 grant from the UW School of Medicine and Public Health Community-Academic Partnership Fund for a community-based EMS pilot project that was effected during the period 6/1/13 through 12/31/14.  
In the interest of simplicity, this pilot project was developed with the narrow focus of identifying elderly populations (> 60 yo) with unmet medical/social needs for the purpose of directing appropriate medical assistance or social services to mitigate the problem. The intent of the (purposeful) simplicity of this project was to establish a patient assessment foundation to build on for any future concept of community-based EMS.  

Based on the extensive cooperation/support from Theda Care Hospital and the Shawano County Aging Resource Center (in addition to the commitment/dedication of the Shawano Ambulance Service EMS Director and EMS providers) - this pilot project proved to be successful in meeting the objectives of the grant and provided NWTC with the incentive to move forward with the research and development of a community-based EMS curriculum (not limited to paramedic but inclusive of AEMTs/EMTs to serve rural populations).   

In response to this success, NWTC has been in the process of developing a curriculum to build on the base of the aforementioned community-based EMS project.  At this juncture in the process, we are researching the many opportunities that are available in community-based EMS/CP to identify the "gap" needs in northeast Wisconsin (rural and urban) and target a viable audience for the delivery of future training.

In the interest of consistency in a community-based EMS/CP training program throughout the state of Wisconsin, I welcome the opportunity to work with a WI-based group to develop a curriculum for this training.  I foresee community-based EMS to be a significant resource for seamless in-hospital/out-of-hospital healthcare for the near future.  

If interested, I have attached a copy of (1) the initial proposal from NWTC for the grant funding for the community-based EMS project, and (2) a copy of the PP presentation that I have used to share the concept of the pilot project. Please note in the PP presentation that the SOAR analysis (not SWOT analysis) was used as an ongoing instrument with Shawano Ambulancee to assess/evaluate the ongoing process of the pilot project.  
Thanks very much for allowing this feedback.  If you have any questions,  please feel free to contact me at any time.  

Cal Lintz EMS Education Coordinator Department of Public Safety Northeast WI Technical College 2740 West Mason Street Green Bay, Wisconsin 54307-9042 c: (920) 362-7391 e: chester.lintz@nwtc.edu

There are about 1,000 paramedics in the US now that have completed the Community Paramedic curriculum, roughly 600 of them trained by Hennepin Tech, many of them through partnerships between HTC and a local community college where HTC (Kai and Dr. Wilcox primarily) helps the local college get through their first course.

 

You may have heard that the state of California has a law that doesn’t allow paramedics to work outside of the ambulance. The state EMS office used a statute-waiver process (which was highly political and took months to complete) to create 12 pilot programs that will emerge and be evaluated over the next 24 to 36 months, after which the legislature will consider changing the statute. The Paramedic Foundation recently completed a partnership arrangement with UCLA and the California community college system whereby we conducted Community Paramedic training simultaneously at 8 different college sites in California to cover the 12 pilot programs. Our primary conduit for that project was Anne Montera, a nurse from Colorado and Paramedic Foundation board member, but also using a host of experts from around the country including Kai and Dr. Wilcox. There are now 77 Community Paramedics trained in the same curriculum practicing in California. It is the first time a state has conducted a simultaneous distance learning education program. It required significant effort by UCLA and the community colleges.

 

We haven’t announced this publicly yet but we are going through a branding change because of the pending release of the shorter curriculum designed around 9-1-1 calls only. The “short course” (roughly 4 credits) will be branded Community Paramedic Technician. The existing course (12-16 credits) designed for primary care integration in addition to 9-1-1 will be re-branded Community Paramedic Clinician. While we have branded the curricula using the international EMS language (primary care paramedic in lieu of EMT, intermediate care paramedic in lieu of AEMT and advanced care paramedic in lieu of paramedic), both curriculums can be adapted for EMTs and AEMTs – they stay in their existing scope of practice, just like paramedics do. It would be nice if Wisconsin transitioned now to the international naming convention, but until that happens, you’ll likely want to call the EMTs and AEMTs that take the courses something other than Community Paramedics. In the other industrialized countries where everyone licensed to work on an ambulance is one of the three paramedic levels and they work for a paramedic service, the Community Paramedic label fits with no conversion. Unfortunately it will take significant time for our states to transition and adopt the international naming convention standard, but we should be having those conversations inside the states now.

 

The International Roundtable on Community Paramedicine will have its 11^th annual meeting in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on October 13-14, 2015. Hope some of you can join us! We’ll be issuing the call for presentations very soon.

 

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Gary Wingrove

Mayo Clinic Medical Transport

1216 Second Street SW

Rochester, MN 55903 USA

+1.202.695.3911

wingrove.gary@mayo.edu

We are considering hosting a Community Paramedicine forum in Eau Claire in late summer. I would think it best for this effort to identify as many potential stakeholders as possible. Below is a place to begin. I would appreciate comment whether these folks are in or out as stakeholder and who would be a potential contact person.

 

Community Paramedicine Stakeholders Forum

Eau Claire, Wisconsin

DRAFT

Potential Stakeholders

Nurse Practioners/Advanced Nurse Practioners

Physician Assistants

Family Medicine Physicians

American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP)

Department of Health Services

                Emergency Medical Services Section

                Public Health Section

Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS)

Accountable Care Organizations (ACO)

Medical Society of Wisconsin

Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA)

Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative (RWHC)

Office of Rural Health (ORH)

Hennepin County Technical College (Kia Hjermstad)

The Paramedic Foundation (Gary Wingrove, Mary Ahlers, Dr. Michael Wilcox)

Wisconsin EMS Association (WEMSA)

Professional Ambulance Association of Wisconsin (PAAW)

Professional Firefighter of Wisconsin (PFFW)

International Associate of Firefighters (IAFF)

Wisconsin Fire Chiefs Association (WFCA)

Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS)and its Districts membership

Wisconsin Paramedics

Local/Regional Hospital administration

Re-admission coordinators and Discharge Planners

Community Healthcare Organizations

Wisconsin Nurses Association

Emergency Nurses Association (ENA)

Home Health Providers

American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN)

 

 

Thanks,

Terry

TGonderzik@cvtc.edu