Portland Fire Launches Program To Help People, Ease 911 Burden

PORTLAND, OR — Too often, firefighters and emergency medical technicians respond to 911 calls from people needing social and health assistance. The problem is that these calls are often not actual emergencies, the Fire Bureau said.

As a result, the bureau is gearing up to start a pilot program next month that will be geared toward providing help to those people without taking firefighters away from fighting fires.

Portland Fire received $2.5 million from a local nonprofit, CareOregon, to create two Community Health Assess and Treat teams that will:

• Provide individuals who call 9-1-1 for non-emergent health issues the care they need at the moment and connect them to the right resources to get them on the path to health improvement (e.g. connected to a Primary Care Physician, enrolled in Oregon Health Plan, etc.).
• Provide education to community members regarding how to access appropriate healthcare in the future—so they use 9-1-1 as a last resort, instead of their first option.
• Help reduce the number of individuals going to the emergency department for non-emergent issues.

Fire Chief Sara Boone said one of her goals since taking over the bureau is to one where they are not just about responding to emergencies but getting more involved with overall community health.

"We haven’t had a mechanism to allow us to spend the time needed to assess and treat community members on scene, and connect them with appropriate care and resources they need," she said.

"We’re launching the Community Health Assess & Treat program to fill this pivotal gap. We believe that this program will help us better serve the community, improve the health outcomes of our community members and make use of limited emergency resources."

The plan is to get the program up and running next month with a focus on downtown and part of Southeast. The pilot program will then be evaluated and possibly expanded.