Oneida County launches program to improve 911 services

UTICA, N.Y. — Oneida County has started a new Nurse Navigation Program to increase the efficiency of its 911 dispatch system by driving non-emergency calls to licensed nurses.

“This innovative new program will provide residents with a variety of options for quickly reaching the new appropriate level of medical care when calling 911,” Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente, Jr. contended in a release. “This will filter out non-emergency calls from our 911 system and allow our dispatchers to more efficiently cater to the needs of those in dire situations.”

The change should also free up local emergency rooms and ambulance corps from being overburdened with patients who do not require that level of care, he added.

“This project is the culmination of the continuous planning process conducted by emergency services in an attempt to increase the efficiency of the services we provide to the community,” Edward Stevens, Oneida County director of emergency services, said. “The planning process for this project intensified partially as a result of what was observed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the ongoing efforts to address the needs of EMS services in the county. Hospital space as well as ambulance availability was strained and pushed to the limits resulting in diversions and long waits by EMS personnel.”

The Nurse Navigation Program will provide individuals with the right level of care, which may or may not include transportation to a hospital emergency department. Calls with non-emergency injuries or illness may be transferred to a nurse navigator to assess symptoms and refer callers to the appropriate medical care, including a local clinic or urgent care.

Nurse navigators can also connect callers directly to telehealth physicians who can provide care and prescribe medication if necessary. Callers don’t need to have insurance to access the service.

“American Medical Response is pleased to partner with Oneida County to connect a nurse navigation program to 911 services, allowing for additional resources and alternate sites of care for those calling 911 with non-life-threatening complaints,” Lisa Edmondson, director of nurse navigation for AMR parent company Global Medical Response, said in the release.

While officials urge that 911 should only be used for urgent, life-threatening or potentially life-threatening emergencies, 3,755 of Oneida County’s 24,169 medical-related 911 calls in 2022 were considered non-emergencies. People should call their primary-care provider for non-emergency medical advice, appointments, and prescription refills, officials said.