Geisinger's Mobile Paramedic Health Program named 'Emergency Care Innovation of the Year'
Geisinger's Mobile Health Paramedic Program earned the award for its innovative new system of dispatching a paramedic to a patient's home to provide medical intervention or follow-up care, such as checking vitals, drawing bloodwork or administering intravenous (IV) diuretics, when the services the patient needs are not available through existing resources. The program allows Geisinger to bridge gaps in care for several key patient populations-those who frequent the emergency department, medically complex patients and patients diagnosed with heart failure-by using mobile equipment and audio-visual technology to connect with care providers. During the pilot phase from March 2014 to June 2015, 42 hospitalizations, 33 emergency department visits and an estimated 168 inpatient days were prevented.
"We wanted to create a nimble, flexible, clinical resource that we could deploy rapidly and provide a focused clinical service to the patient," said David Schoenwetter, D.O., FACEP, medical director of emergency medical services, Geisinger Health System. "Our mobile health paramedics are highly integrated into our system and will comfortably take care of people who are complex and ill."
Dr. Schoenwetter and Kathleen Sharp, senior performance innovation consultant, population health initiatives, accepted the award on behalf of GWV and delivered a presentation about the Mobile Health Paramedic Program at the Urgent Matters Conference in Boston on Oct. 25. Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Conn., earned second-place honors for its Patient Navigators program.
"Being honored-by unanimous vote, no less-is further justification that Geisinger has created a new and improved way to care for patients at the right time and in the right setting," said Dr. Schoenwetter.
About Urgent Matters
Urgent Matters is a national initiative dedicated to finding, developing and delivering strategies to improve patient flow and reduce emergency department crowding. Urgent Matters has a long standing reputation for producing unbiased content from a multi‐disciplinary perspective. Through educational activities such as e-newsletters, web seminars, podcasts, online tools and conferences, Urgent Matters disseminates best practices for emergency care. Urgent Matters is managed by the Office of Clinical Practice Innovation at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
About Geisinger
Geisinger is among the nation’s leading providers of value-based care, serving 1.2 million people in urban and rural communities across central and northeastern Pennsylvania. Founded in 1915 by philanthropist Abigail Geisinger, the nonprofit system generates more than $8 billion in annual revenues across 163 care sites — including 10 hospital campuses — and Geisinger Health Plan, with more than half a million members in commercial and government plans. Geisinger College of Health Sciences educates more than 500 medical professionals annually and is conducting more than 1,400 clinical research studies. With more than 27,000 employees, including 1,800 employed physicians and 5,200 registered nurses, Geisinger is among Pennsylvania’s largest employers, having an estimated economic impact of $16.8 billion on the state’s economy. In 2024, Geisinger joined Risant Health, a nonprofit charitable organization created to expand and accelerate value-based care across the country. Learn more at geisinger.org or follow on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.