12 | NEMHS
rendered by other agencies. In some cases,
a person may not be acutely sick today, but
if medical treatment isn’t provided, the per-
son will be sick tomorrow, thus generating a
call to 9-1-1. Community paramedicine not
only strives to provide a means of care deliv-
ery that helps prevent emergency dispatch of
services, but also serves to connect patients
with services more aligned with their imme-
diate needs. Community paramedics also
undergo training, and can be dispatched to
scenes alongside EMS paramedics, but af-
ter assessing the situation can provide ser-
vices which would be more appropriate than
sending a person to emergency rooms which
may be sufficiently busy tending to more ur-
gent needs. Community paramedicine pro-
grams have been adopted in areas such as
Pittsburgh, Fort Worth and Wake County,
North Carolina, and McGinnis anticipates
that trend to increasingly sweep throughout
the country.
Chief Kevin McGinnis
