What Planners Should Know About Community Paramedicine

The goal of this project is to shine a spotlight on a new way of accessing healthcare for a community through Community Paramedicine. By using paramedics to provide at home or in community primary medical care, it alleviates the use of emergency services. It decreases 911 use, hospital readmissions, and improves patient outcomes. Articles were reviewed to collect data on regions that have implemented Community Paramedicine. Common themes were identified across the various studies to highlight important aspects and benefits. The research revealed that Community Paramedicine is beneficial on many different levels, it not only provides healthcare access to those in the community that may need it, it also improves their lives. It improves healthcare outcomes, decreases use of 911 services, decreases Emergency Department use for non-emergent issues, improves community trust in healthcare givers and is shown to have cost savings for patients and services. There are significant benefits to implementing Community Paramedicine, from providing paramedics a new direction in their career to positive outcomes for the patients it serves including decreased healthcare costs.