Innovative E-911 nurse triage program wins national recognition

Posted On: May 26, 2021

It was an extremely innovative program when launched in 2019 – in fact the first of its kind in Florida, with the ambitious goal of reducing time, costs and precious life-saving resources while responding to medical 911 calls.

A year-and-a-half later, Volusia County’s E-911 re-direct nurse triage program has more than proven its worth by helping to improve efficiency for patients, medics and hospitals. And now, the E-911 re-direct nurse triage program has been recognized with an achievement award from the National Association of Counties (NACo). The county learned of the national achievement award in an email late last week from NACo communications specialist Lindsey Maggard. County representatives are planning to travel to Maryland in July to accept the award during NACo’s annual conference.

“Congratulations to everyone involved in developing this innovative program!” Maggard said in her email. “Your hard work will yield positive results for Volusia County residents.”

Creation of the program was a response to ambulance units frequently being dispatched to 911 medical calls that turned out to not exactly be an emergency – everything from earaches, gout and hemorrhoids to sore throats, toothaches, skin rashes and anxiety. The calls tied up ambulances and EMTs that weren’t available to respond to higher priority, potentially life-and-death medical calls. County officials put their heads together, figuring there had to be a better way. What they came up with was the E-911 re-direct program, where nurses trained in emergency medicine are assigned to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office’s dispatch center to help decide which medical calls require a true emergency response and which ones don’t. After extensive planning and collaboration with local hospitals, urgent care clinics, the county’s medical director and the Sheriff’s Office, the county initiated the program in December 2019. The result has been a more efficient response system that keeps more advanced life support ambulances in service, reduces the number of ambulance transport charges and helps alleviate overcrowding at hospital emergency rooms.

“We’re very proud of the dedication and teamwork that went into getting this program up and running,” said Volusia County Public Protection Director Joe Pozzo. “It was created from the ground up and is showing great results.”

Under the program, the nurses – who also are trained dispatchers – help triage medical calls to decide which ones can be re-directed to a non-emergency response. That response can include things like the triage nurse providing home care instructions or a recommendation that the patient visit an urgent care clinic. If a patient insists on an ambulance, one is dispatched. But in some cases, a lower-tiered basic life support ambulance will do. For patients who aren’t sent an ambulance, a nurse follows up with a phone call to check on them.

Since inception of the program through March 25 of this year, a total of 2,167 calls were referred to the nurse triage program. And that resulted in nearly 400 patients not requiring an EMS response. Additionally, during that same time period, advanced life support ambulances were able to remain in service on 176 different occasions due to a basic life support ambulance being able to respond to a call in their place.

“The recognition from NACo is wonderful news for our community,” Volusia County Emergency Medical Services Director Jason Brady. “But the even bigger reward is seeing the positive impact that this program has had on our county’s emergency response system and the residents who rely on it to serve their medical needs.”