Onondaga County, GMR partner on nurse-navigation program

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Onondaga County Department of Emergency Communications/911 has partnered with Global Medical Response (GMR) on a nurse-navigation program.

Under the program, some area 911 calls involving non-emergency injuries or illnesses are redirected to a state-licensed nurse for assessment, per a news release about the program.

The nurse will assess a caller’s symptoms and refer them to the most appropriate medical care that could include a virtual visit with a board-certified emergency physician, self-care, or transport to a local health-care provider, including clinics, urgent care centers, or if needed, a hospital emergency department.

“By transferring non-emergency situations to a registered nurse for assessment, the nurse can assess the patient’s symptoms and refer them to the appropriate level of medical care. This could be telemedicine, urgent care or potentially back to 911 for an ambulance,” Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said. “The program will ultimately get patients with non-emergency needs to the right level of care in the right amount of time and preserve our county’s ambulances and emergency rooms for those with truly life-threatening injuries and illnesses.”

The program enhances service to the communities of Onondaga County, Julie Corn, Onondaga County Department of Emergency Communications/911 Commissioner, said.

“Through this new and innovative partnership with GMR, our 911 operators will now have the capability to transfer 1,000s of calls annually and get our residents more appropriate care for their specific need,” Corn said. “Our residents will be better served and we will be able to divert 911 callers with non-emergency issues away from an unnecessary ambulance transport and hospital emergency room.”

With the May 19 launch of the program in Onondaga County, it now joins nine other states and the District of Columbia in integrating the nurse-navigation program into 911 systems to alleviate strain on emergency medical service (EMS) and health-care systems while ensuring high and low acuity calls reach the most appropriate level of care, the county said.

Global Medical Response — which is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado — is the parent company of American Medical Response (AMR), which provides ambulance service in Syracuse and Central New York.