Baxter Regional Medical Center Community Paramedic Mobile Healthcare
- Program Representative Interviewed: Gerald Cantrell, RN/Paramedic
- Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas
- Program Overview: The Baxter Regional Medical Center Community Paramedic Mobile Healthcare program's goal is to reduce 30-day hospital readmissions. Community paramedics are trained through a training program developed in conjunction with the University Arkansas. Patients are referred to the program by emergency department, hospital, and emergency medical services staff, or their primary care provider. Their community paramedics perform in-home visits and provide resource management and medication assessments to patients discharged from the hospital who experience chronic heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, hip and joint issues, and coronary artery bypass surgery. The paramedics communicate with patients' primary care provider to develop a 30-day care plan intended to reduce the rate of hospital readmissions. The program primarily serves the Medicare population, typically serves 600-700 patients a year, and has a 96% success rate in helping patients manage their health and graduating them from the program after 30 days.