A new program by Heartland Fire-Rescue and supported by the City of El Cajon would employ nurses to handle non-serious medical calls.
The City of El Cajon is looking to improve it medical services by diverting low priority medical calls to nurses instead of sending EMS crews.
On average El Cajon handles around 16,000 emergency calls per year, approximately a third are not considered true emergencies requiring a typical ambulance and fire apparatus response.
Steve Swaney, Heartland Fire-Rescue chief, told Newsradio 600 KOGO, “We’ve done the same thing for 40 years: Someone calls 911 and we send everybody. It’s not sustainable.”
With the current EMS system, dispatchers code call severity and send EMS crews where the call is critical or not. The new program gives dispatchers the option of transferring callers to a 24/7 nurse call center.
The nurses would triage calls and provide resources to the callers including assisting them in finding non-emergency care and transportation if immediate care is not needed.
The new program has a few additional steps that require approval before it would go into operation this summer. City leaders estimate the program could reduce responses by approximately 5,000 calls.