BILLINGS - The Billings Fire Department is exploring a nurse navigator system that would change how the city responds to emergency medical calls.
The Billings dispatch center receives about 20,000 calls a year, with 10,000 of those for emergency medical services.
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The Billings City Council heard a proposed plan at a Monday work session that would make the response to EMS calls more efficient and better for the patient.
The system would involve dispatchers asking a series of questions to determine who, if anyone, would need to respond — or if a nurse could handle the situation over the phone.
Currently, when the Billings Fire Department receives an emergency medical call, dispatchers send a fire truck, an ambulance, and more recently, a mobile response unit.
Fire Chief Matt Hoppel said many EMS calls do not require that level of response.
"When it comes to EMS calls, you know, a majority of those calls that come in, they don't warrant an emergency response," Hoppel said.
Hoppel said a nurse navigator could help people who don't have a life-threatening emergency.
"Some type of a medical issue that doesn't meet that protocol that we would send an ALS engine or a response, advanced life support, it's more of a basic life support type thing," said Hoppel
Global Medical Response, the parent company for the American Medical Response Ambulance Service, has 70 nurses on staff ready 24/7 at dispatch centers in Phoenix and outside Dallas.
Steve Moffatt, Global Medical Response business manager, said demand for EMS services is outpacing supply.
"There's really a supply and demand issue," Moffat said at the city council work session. "We see that the demand for EMS is going up, but the supply is not there to meet that demand."
Moffatt said Seattle saved about $19 million annually using a similar system, and Billings could see an estimated $1 million in savings each year.
"That cost avoidance would probably be in the realm of close to a million dollars a year," Moffat said. "But that's a cost avoidance. It's not really a savings, and that's a hard thing to quantify."
At the City-County Communications Center, dispatchers already ask questions that can help determine whether to connect a caller with a nurse practitioner.
The dispatch center already asks questions that would help determine if a nurse navigator would help a patient.
"No matter what kind of situation we're coming across, we have scripted questions that we ask and instructions to deliver a baby, stop bleeding, anything like that," said Jeff Love, City County Communications Center supervisor
That process also helps keep Billings fire trucks available for other calls.
The City Council agreed to start the process of integrating the system.
There is no cost.
"The end goal is to make sure we have all the resources that anybody may need in Billings," said Hoppel.
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