LOS ANGELES—If you call an ambulance in Los Angeles these days, you may wind up videoconferencing with a nurse practitioner at home instead of going to an emergency room. Paramedics in Los Angeles are trying a new telehealth program to treat people with mild illnesses on the scene, which saves precious hospital beds for severely ill COVID-19 patients.
Sean Ferguson, firefighter specialist with the L.A. County Fire Department, said in cases of mild illness, a nurse practitioner can provide the right level of care.
“They can then further evaluate the patient, make their own medical assessment, create a treatment plan and even prescribe medicine to them, thus saving them a trip to the emergency room,” Ferguson said.
The fire department for the City of L.A. also is participating in the program, which is free to patients and saves them a very expensive trip to the ER. This is one of the first large-scale paramedic telehealth programs in the country to be created in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Ferguson said people call ambulances for non-emergency reasons on a regular basis— sometimes even if they’ve just run out of a prescription—and that puts a strain on hospitals.
“We still encourage people…
