In today's paper there is an article about the local ambulance service in my other hometown looking at what it would take to have emergency medical technicians make house calls to city residents in need of medical care but not necessarily a ride to an area hospital by ambulance.

It's called a community paramedic program, what those involved with the project are calling the "next phase of healthcare." Under this model, primary care physicians refer patients to emergency medical services personnel to receive in-home services -- blood draws, medication and mental health checks, hospital discharge follow-ups and more.

"Through a community para-medicine program, the agency could potentially free up ambulances being used in non-emergent situations. It could also deliver better, more cost-effective healthcare services to residents within the agency's 450-mile jurisdiction.

Thompson Valley EMS personnel were dispatched to 10,700 calls in 2011.

Personnel transported about 68 percent, or 7,300 of those people, to hospitals for treatment. The remaining 3,400 patients were those who didn't have someone nearby to re-fill their prescriptions or who needed help testing for blood-sugar levels as part of daily diabetes care, among a list of other needs." (emphasis added)

Under the proposed program, a patient could call a non-emergent number and request aid from an EMT in a non-transporting vehicle (anything that's not an ambulance).

The idea of community para-medicine is not new: the Western Eagle County Ambulance District was the first in Colorado to launch a five-year community paramedic pilot program in August 2010. The Community Paramedics program, which aims to reduce hospital re-admission, has since garnered national attention from media and medical agencies alike.

It never occurred to me that people would call an ambulance ($900 gets billed per time) to routinely check their blood sugar or refill prescriptions for them. This must be people on Medicare and Medicaid, because uninsured folks could never afford it.

I think it's a marvelous idea, and I hope it works out. Our society tends to be very isolationist, and many of us could end up in a position where we had nobody to call for assistance, especially on a short-term basis. Yes, there are visiting nurse agencies on a county level, but it takes awhile to get set up with them, plus waiting lists. Not everyone would require a permanent arrangement, sometimes they are recovering from a hospital stay, and you know how hospitals like to hustle a person out of there as fast as possible these days, so a lot of recovering is done at home.

Maybe in a pinch a person could call a temp agency to get a helper, but I would have trust issues. I don't think 'bonded' means what we think it should, and once they've stolen your family heirloom jewelry or even your prescriptions, if you were in bad enough shape to need their services, how are you going to have it together to put in a claim? And you'll never get your stuff back. At least these people work for a city agency, so are a little more accountable.

When I was growing up in a small northern Colorado town, we knew older ladies who could be hired to 'do' for our elderly family members in their homes. These were our friends and neighbors, and I suppose there could have been problems in certain situations, but the ones I knew were friends of my mother, and it worked well for years.

Some might say 'that's what family is for' but many people don't have family nearby, and in the case of some of us, we don't have children. Some people who have children are estranged from them for various reasons.

A service like this is not going to be free, of course. They plan to submit claims to Medicare and Medicaid for reimbursement. Someone like me would have to pay out of pocket because my health insurance wouldn't cover it, but it would be worth it, and should be cheaper than a full ambulance visit.

So, bring it on, Thompson Valley EMS! I hope it works out. Maybe I'll need your help some day.