The Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization (FDRHPO) recently donated 50 pulse oximeters to Jefferson County Public Health to assist with the Jefferson County Public Health’s Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) initiative.
“In support of rural health telemedicine initiatives, FDRHPO has identified a need for remote patient monitoring devices to be deployed to help those with acute and chronic conditions engage and better understand their health,” said Jonathan Cole, EMS Program Agency Director at FDRHPO.
A pulse oximeter, or Pulse Ox, is an electronic device that measures the saturation of oxygen carried in your red blood cells. The donated pulse oximeters will be distributed by Jefferson County Public Health’s MIH team to residents in the North Country who can benefit from reading their oxygen levels from home, eliminating emergency visits and resources.
“The Pulse Ox will be provided to patients served by the five EMS agencies involved in the MIH program,” said Ginger Hall, Supervising Public Health Nurse at Jefferson County Public Health. “These devices provide another assessment tool for the MIH program. The devices help with the MIH mission of reducing ED visits and hospitalizations.”
She continued that the devices also provide the patient with a tool to evaluate their own status and provides concrete data they can share with their care team.
The MIH program is a form of community paramedicine, a value-based care strategy through which EMS personnel engage in non-emergency interactions with patients in the community, thereby promoting care integration and coordination with a variety of needed services, and improved patient navigation.
“By being able to deliver these valuable tools to our local MIH program, we are helping reduce the burden on both our local EMS System and our hospital systems by managing chronic illnesses in an out-of-hospital/pre-hospital setting. This program has shown clear results in the reduction of chronic 911 users' reliance on calling EMS, and emergency room admissions,” said Mr. Cole.
FDRHPO works together with the North Country Initiative (NCI), whose mission is to work in partnership with hospitals, independent physicians, and community providers to reform the health care system across northern New York’s Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties. With the health care system undergoing significant change at both state and national levels, FDRHPO and NCI work together to align incentives across our rural region, create clinical programs and develop necessary health technology infrastructure.
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