Henry County 911 using nurse navigators to help field medical calls

HENRY COUNTY, Ga. - Callers who reach 911 in Henry County have a new option to help field medical calls. It's called the nurse navigator program and it provides medical assistance to people with non-emergency medical situations.

Around 1,300 calls a day come into the Henry County 911 center, each caller has different needs.

"Every time someone calls 911, they're having some sort of emergency event in their life. And our job is to make sure that we are able to respond appropriately and intervene and help out with that emergency," Chief Jonathan Burnette said. Burnette is the Fire Chief and EMA Director for Henry County.

A new tool for the Henry County 911 operators helps his crew respond more effectively.

"So, the nurse navigator program is kind of an offshoot, if you will, of or priority dispatch emergency dispatch medical dispatch program that we already use and have for many, many years," Carrie Gonzales said. Gonzales is the Professional Standards Coordinator for Henry County 911.

Dispatchers ask each caller a series of triage questions to determine what kind of care each person needs. While life-threatening situations like stabbings or a heart attack get an ambulance dispatched immediately, people with less urgent medical issues can talk to a nurse navigator for help.

"Your nurse navigator-type calls could be someone who just needs a doctor's appointment, or someone who needs transport, someone who needs a ride to the doctor's office but not necessarily an ambulance ride to the hospital," Gonzales said.

The nurse navigators are licensed nurses. They assess each person's needs, and can schedule virtual visits with a doctor, direct them to urgent care, set up a telemedicine visit with a physician, or refer to other health care options outside the emergency department.

"I think that anyone who is calling 911, they are requesting help some way or another. Me personally, if I had the option of going to the doctor, or urgent care, or telemed visit instead of sitting in the emergency department for something that could be avoided, I would appreciate that," Gonzales said.

The program started on June 28, in the first two weeks 93 people opted to use the nurse navigator. More than half of them also decided to go with alternative care from a health care provider in the community. This helps prevent overcrowding in the emergency department and keep more ambulances ready to respond.

So, one of the added benefits to this program is just that. It will allow us to keep more of our ambulances in service for those true life-threatening emergencies like car wrecks and heart attacks. And also reduce our ambulance response times and keep more ambulances to respond in the community," Chief Burnette said.

It's been positively received so far, with an average 4.8 out of 5 rating from people who have used the service.

"The overall arching goal is to make sure we get the right medical treatment to the patients per what their event is," Chief Burnette said.

Chief Burnette said this was all made possible through county leaders.

"We would like to thank our county manager and our Board of Commissioners for their support in this program because we see it as a great success and another option to the community," he said.

It's always up to the caller if they want to use the nurse navigator or not. If anyone asks for an ambulance, they will always be sent one. This is meant to add more options for care to everyone in the community and add convenience and help to all callers no matter their needs.