Hoping to curb unnecessary trips to the emergency room, Clayton County is launching a pilot paramedicine service to help keep the the county’s chronically ill from becoming regulars in the ER.
Last year, Clayton fire and rescue crews transported just 35 residents 600 times to area hospitals at a cost of nearly $1.5 million to county taxpayers.
The chronically ill - or Frequent Fliers as they’re known in emergency management services circles - cost American communities hundreds of millions of dollars annually because they use EMS as their chief source of medical care. Clayton’s Community Care program is designed to help the chronically ill get their health problems under control without having to call 911 or use ERs all the time. It’s also one of only a few paramedicine programs nationwide run by a county fire department.
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