By MES Dispatch staff
The Briefing
- Grand Rapids, Mich. — The Grand Rapids Fire Department and Corewell Health will pilot a community health worker (CHW) response alongside EMS to steer low-acuity 911 callers toward primary care and social services. FireRescue1
- Timeline/scale: Six-month pilot begins January; embeds a full-time CHW with GRFD resources at no additional cost to the department. FireRescue1
- Why it matters: GRFD handles 17,000+ medical-related calls/year; many are driven by social needs (medication access, food, transportation), not emergencies. FireRescue1
- Goals/metrics: Cut preventable ED visits and repeat 911 calls; measure success via community feedback and reductions in repeat users and ED utilization. FireRescue1
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Grand Rapids Fire Department is teaming with Corewell Health on a first-of-its-kind partnership in Michigan that inserts a community health worker (CHW) into the emergency response for low-acuity 911 calls, aiming to connect residents with primary care, medications and social supports instead of defaulting to ambulance transports and emergency departments. The six-month pilot starts in January. FireRescue1
GRFD leadership said the program targets calls where the real problem is access—prescriptions, food, transportation, a doctor’s appointment—rather than a time-sensitive medical emergency. The CHW will ride with GRFD’s assigned EMS resource, help triage needs on scene, and coordinate follow-up care to reduce repeat 911 use and preventable ED visits. FireRescue1
The fire department will repurpose an existing EMS captain, vehicle and equipment, keeping the pilot cost-neutralfor GRFD, while Corewell Health supplies the CHW and plans to scale based on results. At conclusion, the partners will evaluate outcomes using community feedback and data on repeat-caller reductions and ED utilization. FireRescue1
Officials characterized the expected impact as small caseload, big benefit: even a few hundred avoided transports annually would free ambulances, open ED capacity and get patients closer to the right care—all while reducing crew burnout on recurring non-emergent runs. FireRescue1