Starting Friday, D.C. Fire and EMS ambulances won’t transport all patients that contact 911 to a hospital emergency room. In some cases, emergency responders will help assess patients on-site, but refer them to a clinic if the issue is deemed non-life-threatening.
The program—called Right Care, Right Now—is aimed at freeing up the District’s resources and emergency room beds at hospitals for true emergencies, officials say. For patients with Medicaid, the District will arrange transportation to and from community clinics through ride-hailing programs, like Lyft.
“The system that had developed over years was what we call, ‘You call, we haul,’” said Dr. Robert Holman, D.C. Fire and EMS’s medical director. ” So anyone who would call 911, even if it was for a stubbed toe or a toothache, or a rash or a bladder infection, we just took them to the emergency department.”
D.C. officials have passed out flow charts like the one above to describe upcoming changes.
Holman said first responders will still go out on 911 calls, but when they get there, they can assess whether the patient should go to a clinic instead of a hospital.
The policy change is a continuation of an effort by the District to divert non-emergency patients from emergency rooms. Officials say the District has one of the highest per capita 911 call volume in the country.
Last year, the District launched a 911 nurse triage program, which uses registered nurses to help assess patients who call 911.
This story originally appeared on WAMU.
