Clarksville Fire receives grant for paramedicine program

Erik Hackman, The Evening News and the Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind.
·2 min read

Feb. 6—CLARKSVILLE — The Indiana Department of Health gave $315,000 to Clarksville's Fire Department for a community paramedicine program.

The money came from the Health Issues and Challenges Grant, which has given out nearly $8.5 million to counties all over the state. This grant money will not be given to the fire department until this coming July.

With this money, Clarksville's Fire Department will be able to reduce the number of patients returning to the hospital by providing at-home treatment plans, transportation, a wellness check and making sure they are taking their medicine.

This is the first paramedicine program in the area, the next closest areas that have similar programs are Evansville and Bloomington.

The service is expected to be fully operational by 2024.

"We're working on getting all of our protocols and policies in place," said Brandon Skaggs, Clarksville Fire Department chief. "With the grant starting in July, it puts us about six months behind."

A patient database with treatment plans will be created for those who are in need of the program. To be a part of the program, a patient has to be referred.

"We do that with partnerships like Clark Memorial Hospital and LifeSpring," Skaggs said. "That will allow us to establish a patient database and then get with care coordination from those agencies to see what the treatment plans are for those people."

It will also work with 9-1-1 to check on people that have been calling the emergency service line multiple times in a short span of time.

"They go out there and they see what's going on in the home," said Eric Yazel, Clark County Health Officer. "They come up with a care plan to try to decrease 9-1-1 utilization and troubleshoot what the underlying problem is, instead of just doing the same thing over and over again."

The overall goal of the paramedicine program is to serve the people who are the most vulnerable in the community. It will also help the county as a whole by letting EMS and ambulances focus on true emergencies and decrease hospital crowding.

"We won't be responding to emergency calls," Skaggs said. "That's still going to be reserved for the firefighters and EMS. This is going to be something that's low acuity and typically chronic issues that someone's been dealing with."