WEBVTT
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Welcome to Western Wisconsin Health's season three of our Redefining
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Rural Healthcare podcast. When most think of rural healthcare, they
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think of small towns and simple services. At Western Wisconsin Health,
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we break the mold. We provide world-class care in a
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community setting with a large breadth of service that rivals
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urban facilities. Our independent status is unique in a sea
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of system hospitals. We believe this independent status allows us
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to be close to our community and best understand and
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respond to our community needs. We can't do this alone.
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Our mission is to build healthier communities together. This involves
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our community partners. During Season 3, we will explore these
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community partnerships to share how our work together improves health
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outcomes for all we serve. Rima Lindquist, Western Wisconsin Health's
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Director of Community Relations, will serve as our primary host
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and our tour guide. She will ask questions that will
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spark your curiosity and pique your interest. Join us as
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we chronicle our journey to redefine rural health care. Take
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a listen.
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Welcome to Redefining Rural Health Care, a podcast where we
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explore people, ideas, and partnerships that are helping shape the
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future of health care in rural communities. I'm Rima Lindquist,
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Community Relations Director here at Western Wisconsin Health. And today
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we're talking about a partnership that takes healthcare beyond the
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walls of the hospital and into the communities we serve.
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We're joined by Tom Boyer, Chief of Baldwin EMS, to
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talk about the important role EMS plays in our community,
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more specifically the Community Paramedic Program, a partnership between Baldwin
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EMS and Western Wisconsin Health. Community paramedicine is helping expand
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the role of paramedics beyond traditional emergency response, bringing care, support, education,
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and connections to resources directly to patients in their home
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and communities. Tom brings years of experience in emergency medical
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services and a unique perspective on how EMS is evolving
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to meet the changing needs of rural patients. Today, we'll
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talk about his career in EMS, and what it takes
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to become a paramedic, the important work Baldwin EMS does
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every day, and how community paramedicine is helping patients receive
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the right care in the right place at the right time. Tom,
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welcome to Redefining Rural Healthcare. We're glad to have you
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with us today.
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Thank you for having me today.
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Let's get started by having you tell us about yourself
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and how you got started in EMS.
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Well, I'm from the area. I graduated from Spring Valley
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back in 1999. I married my high school girlfriend. I
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went to River Falls, pursued a degree in education. And
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while I was coaching football, one day I realized I
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didn't know much about taking care of athletes if they
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got injured, much more than, you know, walk it off
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kind of a deal. So I went to the local ambulance,
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Spring Valley Ambulance, and I asked them, you know, if
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they could teach me some first aid, and they decided
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to recruit me. So I took an EMR class, a
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first responder course in January of 2005. Became a first
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responder for Spring Valley. From there, I went on to
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become an EMT basic in the fall of 2005. And
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then I joined the fire department in 2006 and then
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just kept snowballing. And eventually I ended up here in
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Baldwin as a paramedic and an EMS chief in May
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of 2015. Wow.
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I didn't know you had a connection with the Spring
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Valley EMS.
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Yep.
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My neighbors used to be, um, Todd and Mel, uh, Jordan.
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So that's a very cool connection. They're wonderful EMS people
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there in spring Valley. Yeah.
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Todd and I go fishing up north a couple of
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times a year.
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So very nice. So how many people are on the
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Baldwin EMS team right now?
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We have 45 members on our roster right now. We
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have myself and we have six full-time staff members. We
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have 31 paid on call staff members. Basically they're volunteers.
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They get paid a small hourly rate to be within
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a response distance of the station. If they can't meet
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that because of weather or where they live, they stay
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at the station. Then we have two community paramedics. And
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we have five first responders that live out in the
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country that respond direct to scenes from their house.
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Okay. That's quite a few more than I thought you had.
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So that's interesting. Approximately how many calls do you respond
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to each year?
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We respond to between 1,700 to 1,800 calls a year.
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So about four to five a day on average. Of
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those calls, 450 about are inter-facility transfers, either from West
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Wisconsin Health here to hospitals in the cities or Eau
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Claire or coming out of like Westfield or Amory, other
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hospitals that need to get some patients to the cities.
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Okay. So when people do that, are they transporting usually
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when they're stabilized or is this emergent when you're transporting them?
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It's the whole gambit. It can be somebody that's actually
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having a STEMI or a heart attack, um, trauma patients
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that are, they need to get there now and they
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can't get a helicopter because of weather. It can be
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the person that needs to get there for a surgical
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consult in the morning. So, and based on the patient's needs,
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we send the appropriate crews, um, Sometimes it can just
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be two EMTs. Other times it's a medic and a
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patient's on the ventilator. So a little bit of everything.
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Right. So you really have to have that big staff
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that you have on to really accommodate to each separate
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need that the patient has. That's interesting. Takes more planning
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than I thought. All right. What does it take to
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become a paramedic?
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To become a paramedic, you have to start off at
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the EMT basic level first. You've got to become a basic,
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which is about a 160-hour class. you take it out
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of a local tech college. You can start when you're
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in high school, make your high school pay for it
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so you don't have to pay out of pocket. But
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you can't actually start practicing until you're 18, get your
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state license. But from there, once you become a basic,
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then you can enroll in a paramedic program, again, with
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a local tech college. That's going to run about 2,000 hours.
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And with a paramedic curriculum, there's about 750 hours of
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clinical hours. Either we're going to be in the ERs,
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we're going to be on ambulances. surgical, ICU, shadowing doctors,
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getting to see patients at all different levels, learning medications,
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the whole gambit. So it takes from basic to the
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end of the paramedic program, anywhere from a year and
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a half to two years, depending on which college you
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go to, tech college or program you decide. If you
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take a gap like I did, it took a few years.
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Okay, interesting. I didn't realize you had so many on
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the job experiences that you had to do. So are
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those hours... scheduled hours where you're in a facility constantly,
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or is that as you are taking calls with EMS
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and then you're, you're going out and spending time with them?
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How does that work?
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So it is scheduled clinical hours. So some of it
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would be like, you're going to do 200 hours, like
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Eau Claire fire. So you spend 200 hours on their ambulance.
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Then you'll go and do 40 hours in an ICU
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at like regions or, um, Mayo and Eau Claire, depending
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on what tech college you're with. So it depends. You
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have to witness like two or three child deliveries. So
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depending if you're in the ER, at a hospital, and
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you can maybe, if there's a baby delivery, you jump
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out and go watch that if the mother allows. So
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they're scheduled. You devote your time to that. That's outside
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the classroom.
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So you really learn a lot more than hopefully you
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need to know, but you have it there in case
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you need it. Yep. What do you think people would
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be surprised to learn about the work that paramedics do?
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Well, it's not like they show on TV. It's a
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little bit different. We respond to all sorts of different calls.
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It varies. Sometimes calls go easy. Other times we find
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patients stuck between the toilet and the bathtub. Believe it
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or not, they do get stuck there. Nurses in the
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ERs will testify that we do like pillows. We will
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take a pillow. We make sure we always leave with
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a pillow out of the ER. Those are a commodity.
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We have good days and bad days. So the work
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is never ending and it always catches us off by surprise.
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Be nice to know what we're going to do today,
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but we don't know that.
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Absolutely. When you say that people don't, it's not like
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it seems on TV. What is that common misconception?
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Oh, the TV world is makes it seem so dramatic.
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You know, they fly in and they do these dramatic
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things and it's just, you know, If it's your job,
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that's your job. You're a professional. You go in. You
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do it. TV has all the worst-case scenarios every day,
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and we don't get those. We get the lift assist.
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We get the little old lady on Christmas Eve who's lonely,
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and we just want to ride to the hospital. So
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we pick her up, and she's got the night bag packed,
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and we jumped on our cot, and we talked to
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her the whole way to the hospital and some of
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those things. So it's just a little bit different than
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the perspective for ratings.
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Right.
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I agree.
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I agree. I wasn't quite sure what you meant, but
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I was hoping that it was that. So what is
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community paramedicine and how is it different from traditional EMS response?
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So community paramedicine is also known as like mobile integrated healthcare,
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depending on where you learned it. It's not an emergency response.
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People don't call 911. The community paramedic doesn't rush out
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the door. We usually know our patients ahead of time.
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We get referrals from doctors and we know what we're
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getting into and it's not acute, right? It's not an emergency.
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It's more chronic. It's more deliberate. We're going to go
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there with a specific goal to provided, you know, fall
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prevention to provide medication refills. And we're going to spend
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some time with the patients in their home, make sure
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they get what they need. And then we're going to
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leave them there and we're going to go see the
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next patient. So we're not transporting them. We are taking
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care of them in their home. Our goal is to
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keep them in their home is usually like a normal paramedic.
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We want to get them to a hospital and it's
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an emergency. Let's go to get them going. and it's
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usually more of a nine-to-five job, not nights, weekends, and
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holidays like a paramedic is. So it's a little slower pace,
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more relaxing, more structured.
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Do some of the same patients get frequent visits, or
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are they different patients all the time?
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Well, some of our CPs do call 911, and we
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do see them on both sides of the fence, and
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sometimes we have referred some of our more frequent 911
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patients into the CP program to try to eliminate the workload,
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both on the ER side and the 911 side. And
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that has proven to be a benefit of that program
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is by sending that CP, the community paramedic out there,
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they stopped calling 911. We can sort of take care
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of them a little bit. So they don't need to
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call us as often.
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Absolutely. I think that's one of the reasons that we
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formed our partnership about that. Um, So how does the
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partnership between Baldwin EMS and Western Wisconsin Health benefit the patients?
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It benefits the patients by basically keeping them in their home,
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keeping them healthy. We go out there, we allow them
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to still stay independent, right? We're providing them some medical
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needs that they, whatever it is from some simple education
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to wound care and By doing that in their house,
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they don't need to bug people for rides. They don't
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need to miss appointments because they can't get rides. They
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don't need to go look at a nursing home and
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leave their house. They don't need to skip appointments. Then
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now they got to call 911 because they don't have
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blood pressure medication. So keep them healthy. We keep them
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in their homes. You know, they're happier. They're healthier. Saves
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them money. You know, lessens the burden on the 911 system.
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It frees up the ER for the more acute, chronically
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sick patients that are coming in. And it's just sort
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of better for the whole system in general.
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When you say it saves them money, does a community
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paramedic visit cost the patient anything?
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Right now it does not, no. There's no bill to
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the patient. A lot of insurance don't cover it. Someday
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maybe there'll be some small bills, but that's insurance way
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down the line we will probably never ever really bill
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a patient it because in the long run it actually
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saves both the ambulance and the hospital networks money because
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most of these patients are on medicare medicaid reimbursement rates
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for 901 calls is very low for an ambulance and
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for me to send two three people out in an
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ambulance at two o'clock in the morning to take care
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of a patient we typically lose money to send one
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to send a community paramedic out at three o'clock in
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the afternoon in one vehicle to provide care for an
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hour it's you know not that much money so we
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actually end up cutting our losses drastically so it's a
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benefit to.
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Us right so we're able to partner to cover those
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expenses for now I know we've written a few grants
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to try to cover those expenses too and we've been
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lobbying with our local legislators to change some things up
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so that we can get some reimbursement that way and
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keep this going because it's been really successful Can you
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share a story about how community paramedicine has made a
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difference for someone in our community?
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There's a lot of them out there. This took me
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a while to pinpoint a couple of them when I
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was thinking about this, but one in particular that came
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to mind was during COVID, right after everything shut down,
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I think it was the first part of April, the
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hospital called them. It was an elderly couple, and they
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believed that the wife possibly had UTIs. And she didn't
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want to come to the hospital. Can't blame her. Everybody
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was really, you know, nervous. So I came in, I
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got the materials from the lab, went out there, sort
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of stood in the doorway of the hallway of the apartment,
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collected a urine sample from her. She went to the bathroom,
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provided me with the urine sample. I came back to here,
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dropped it off the lab. The lab was able to
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run it. Confirmed she did have a UTI. And then
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between the lab and the doctor, you guys were in
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the hospital staff here. You guys were able to get
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her antibiotics that evening. So she never actually physically had
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to come into the hospital to get the antibiotics or
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get the testing during a time when COVID was starting
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and everything was shut down. And being that she was
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already sick and she had numerous other health conditions, she
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would have been at a high risk for contracting COVID.
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And we kept her and her husband healthy. So I
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think that was just one of the many stories that
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has proven to be beneficial for this program.
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Yes. I'm sure you could tell probably many stories about
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COVID and how it changed the way that you probably
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delivered care as well as how we did. I know
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it was, it's hopefully something we won't have to deal
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with again in our lifetime. Right. Um, what are you
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most proud of when you think about Baldwin EMS and
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the role it plays in our community?
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I'm just proud of the staff we have at Baldwin EMS.
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We have two community paramedics right now that are going
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out providing care. Myself and two other full-time staff members
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took the time out to get community paramedics certified to
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help fill in. You know, those are evenings that we
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had to spend taking classes and it wasn't twisting arms.
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It was who wants to do this? And it was volunteers, right?
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It was, we want to go out and help these people.
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And it's just You know, it's awesome to see that
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we have those providers that want to provide care to
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the people in the community. And it's not a, do
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I have to, it's I want to. And that's what's
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really awesome to see. And it's awesome to see that
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we have a hospital network with Western Wisconsin Health that
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has the same passion to do that for the community.
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And that's just something that I'm very proud to be
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part of in this area.
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Absolutely. Absolutely. I think your new beautiful building is another
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benefit to our community. I know we get to spend
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some time there in the training room. Can you tell
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us a little bit about that new facility and how
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it's helped you be able to deliver better care?
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Yes. In February of 24, we moved into our new
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ambulance building over there on Cedar, just past the Wisconsin
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Credit Union. The Village of Baldwin built it for us.
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We're very grateful. Our old building was old. It was
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small and cramped. For the full-time staff, we worked in
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an inside room with no windows, very little airflow. Our
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new building is designed for growth. We can sleep all
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the staff that's on call at night. So we used
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to have staff sleeping on couches or in the back
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of the ambulances or in pickup trucks. The new building
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allows us to train our staff. We have the space
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for training. We have a kitchen that doesn't flood.
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Well, it's important not to flood that, right? That must
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be a story behind that.
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Every spring. Okay. But it allowed us to be able
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to provide the living accommodations to encourage staff to stay
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at the station. So it helped develop more of a
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family-like atmosphere on the crew. They do crew dinners now
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much more frequently, pretty much every night. Even the people
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that live in town come down if they don't have Family,
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they come down by themselves, but oftentimes you'll see the
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spouse and the kids there too, eating dinner with the crew.
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We train, they have a gas grill outside, gas fire pit,
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and in the evenings they're out there hanging out. It's
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become more of a family-like atmosphere. We are fully staffed
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with volunteers. We have a wait list for employees. So
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it's been a, just helped solidify the service.
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That is really wonderful. We're very lucky in Baldwin to
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be able to have that. What is the service area
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that you cover?
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We cover roughly 250 square miles of St. Croix County,
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sort of the central, southern, eastern part of it. We
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go from the outskirts of Roberts in the south eastern
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part of Warren Township all the way to the Dunn
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County line on 94, so we get The southern townships,
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we also cover the village of Hammond, Baldwin, obviously, Woodville,
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and Wilson. We get up into Springfield Township, Baldwin, Hammond,
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Aaron Prairie. Not all the townships. We share some of
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that with Glenwood City and New Richmond. We share Katy
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with Spring Valley. But it's geopolitical boundaries. We cover 13 municipalities.
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That's a lot bigger than I thought. How many different
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vehicles do you have?
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We have three ambulances, two fly cars, those Ford Explorers,
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one pickup truck that can pull a UTV on a
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trailer or a disaster trailer.
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That's more robust than I imagined as well. So I
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think I'm learning quite a bit about Baldwin EMS today.
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So you mentioned before that you went to school for
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teaching and then at this new facility that you have
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a training space. Do you do any specific training externally
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for other people in the community, any CPR training classes
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or anything like that?
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Yeah, we're actually an American Heart Association training site. So
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we can train for CPR, ACLS, and PELS. So we
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can train instructors or provide those classes for either first-time
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people to get their initial certification or renewal certification for those.
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Myself and several staff members are instructors. So we host
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classes on a regular basis. We work with local community
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education for both Baldwin and we're working with St. Croix
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Central to be on the community ed list. So we
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work with them and we do a babysitter training first
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aid for those middle schoolers that want to get into babysitting.
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Okay. And is signing up for that through that community
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ed magazine?
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Yep.
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Is that how people would be able to sign up
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for that if they needed to?
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Yeah, the Baldwin District website, the community ed link.
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Yep. Do you still do bike helmet fitting?
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We do not. Molly Lambert took that over here.
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Okay.
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They had better storage facilities for bike helmets.
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Great. How about any type of like child seat safety
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checks or anything like that?
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We work with you guys. We host, I think, quarterly,
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you guys use our apparatus bay to do car seat clinics.
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And we just had the car seat clinic guy out
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here teaching a class for new instructors or technicians.
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Okay.
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So we have people at our station all the time
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doing classes for various sorts of things.
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So many other ways that we partner other than the
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community paramedic program.
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We're always working. Now we got Red Cross Blood Drive.
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We work with you guys. You guys push them our way.
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So we host that every eight weeks at our station.
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You know, I don't know that we push them your
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way because we still host them here too. So I
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think that there's plenty of opportunities for listeners to go
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and donate blood if they want at either our facility
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or yours.
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Go to the website. Correct. Get an appointment.
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Yes. Very good. We always like to wrap up our
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episodes by asking you what drives you. Tell us a
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little bit about, you know, Tom and your purpose and
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your why.
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I mean, like I said, I started off because I
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didn't know how to help somebody if they're injured and
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it just kept snowballing from there. I just enjoy helping
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people and being there when they need help and it
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just keeps going and we keep trying to be on
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the forefront of what is the next thing, the best
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thing they can do from, you know, we put ultrasounds
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on our trucks a few years ago. We just put
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antibiotics on our ambulances here last week for open fractures.
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We just want to keep helping the community. Whatever the
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next thing is that can benefit them, we're going to
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try to get on our trucks.
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You know, with the evolution of everything, technology, you think
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about all of these pieces that have made delivering care
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easier for us and we're able to save lives in
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many different ways. So it is kind of exciting to
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see that. Good. Well, thank you for joining us and
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sharing more about the important work Baldwin EMS is doing
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in our community. The Community Paramedic Program is a great
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example of what can happen when local health care partners
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work together to bring care beyond the walls of the
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hospital and directly to the people who need it most.
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At Western Wisconsin Health, we believe in building a healthier
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tomorrow together. Partnerships like this remind us that improving the
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health of our communities is truly a team effort. Thank
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you for listening to Redefining Rural Healthcare. We hope you'll
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join us for our next episode as we continue sharing
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the people, ideas, and partnerships that are making a difference
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in rural healthcare. And as always, remember, your health is
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your wealth.
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Thank you for listening and be sure to subscribe so
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you don't miss one minute of this important health information.
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Visit www.health.org to learn more about all of the services
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we offer. Thanks for joining us through this journey and
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00:24:22.140 --> 00:24:25.509
helping us redefine rural healthcare. Till next time.
1
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Welcome to Western Wisconsin Health's season three of our Redefining
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00:00:08.990 --> 00:00:12.869
Rural Healthcare podcast. When most think of rural healthcare, they
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think of small towns and simple services. At Western Wisconsin Health,
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00:00:17.410 --> 00:00:21.000
we break the mold. We provide world-class care in a
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community setting with a large breadth of service that rivals
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00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:29.320
urban facilities. Our independent status is unique in a sea
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of system hospitals. We believe this independent status allows us
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to be close to our community and best understand and
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respond to our community needs. We can't do this alone.
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Our mission is to build healthier communities together. This involves
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our community partners. During Season 3, we will explore these
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community partnerships to share how our work together improves health
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outcomes for all we serve. Rima Lindquist, Western Wisconsin Health's
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Director of Community Relations, will serve as our primary host
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and our tour guide. She will ask questions that will
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spark your curiosity and pique your interest. Join us as
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we chronicle our journey to redefine rural health care. Take
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a listen.
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Welcome to Redefining Rural Health Care, a podcast where we
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explore people, ideas, and partnerships that are helping shape the
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future of health care in rural communities. I'm Rima Lindquist,
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Community Relations Director here at Western Wisconsin Health. And today
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we're talking about a partnership that takes healthcare beyond the
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walls of the hospital and into the communities we serve.
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We're joined by Tom Boyer, Chief of Baldwin EMS, to
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talk about the important role EMS plays in our community,
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more specifically the Community Paramedic Program, a partnership between Baldwin
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EMS and Western Wisconsin Health. Community paramedicine is helping expand
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the role of paramedics beyond traditional emergency response, bringing care, support, education,
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and connections to resources directly to patients in their home
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and communities. Tom brings years of experience in emergency medical
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services and a unique perspective on how EMS is evolving
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to meet the changing needs of rural patients. Today, we'll
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talk about his career in EMS, and what it takes
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to become a paramedic, the important work Baldwin EMS does
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every day, and how community paramedicine is helping patients receive
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the right care in the right place at the right time. Tom,
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welcome to Redefining Rural Healthcare. We're glad to have you
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with us today.
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Thank you for having me today.
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Let's get started by having you tell us about yourself
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and how you got started in EMS.
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Well, I'm from the area. I graduated from Spring Valley
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back in 1999. I married my high school girlfriend. I
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went to River Falls, pursued a degree in education. And
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while I was coaching football, one day I realized I
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didn't know much about taking care of athletes if they
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got injured, much more than, you know, walk it off
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kind of a deal. So I went to the local ambulance,
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Spring Valley Ambulance, and I asked them, you know, if
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they could teach me some first aid, and they decided
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to recruit me. So I took an EMR class, a
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first responder course in January of 2005. Became a first
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responder for Spring Valley. From there, I went on to
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become an EMT basic in the fall of 2005. And
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then I joined the fire department in 2006 and then
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just kept snowballing. And eventually I ended up here in
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Baldwin as a paramedic and an EMS chief in May
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of 2015. Wow.
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I didn't know you had a connection with the Spring
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Valley EMS.
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Yep.
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My neighbors used to be, um, Todd and Mel, uh, Jordan.
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So that's a very cool connection. They're wonderful EMS people
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there in spring Valley. Yeah.
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Todd and I go fishing up north a couple of
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times a year.
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So very nice. So how many people are on the
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Baldwin EMS team right now?
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We have 45 members on our roster right now. We
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have myself and we have six full-time staff members. We
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have 31 paid on call staff members. Basically they're volunteers.
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They get paid a small hourly rate to be within
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a response distance of the station. If they can't meet
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that because of weather or where they live, they stay
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at the station. Then we have two community paramedics. And
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we have five first responders that live out in the
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country that respond direct to scenes from their house.
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Okay. That's quite a few more than I thought you had.
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So that's interesting. Approximately how many calls do you respond
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to each year?
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We respond to between 1,700 to 1,800 calls a year.
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So about four to five a day on average. Of
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those calls, 450 about are inter-facility transfers, either from West
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Wisconsin Health here to hospitals in the cities or Eau
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Claire or coming out of like Westfield or Amory, other
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hospitals that need to get some patients to the cities.
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Okay. So when people do that, are they transporting usually
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when they're stabilized or is this emergent when you're transporting them?
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It's the whole gambit. It can be somebody that's actually
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having a STEMI or a heart attack, um, trauma patients
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that are, they need to get there now and they
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can't get a helicopter because of weather. It can be
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the person that needs to get there for a surgical
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consult in the morning. So, and based on the patient's needs,
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we send the appropriate crews, um, Sometimes it can just
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be two EMTs. Other times it's a medic and a
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patient's on the ventilator. So a little bit of everything.
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Right. So you really have to have that big staff
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that you have on to really accommodate to each separate
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need that the patient has. That's interesting. Takes more planning
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than I thought. All right. What does it take to
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become a paramedic?
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To become a paramedic, you have to start off at
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the EMT basic level first. You've got to become a basic,
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which is about a 160-hour class. you take it out
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of a local tech college. You can start when you're
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in high school, make your high school pay for it
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so you don't have to pay out of pocket. But
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you can't actually start practicing until you're 18, get your
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state license. But from there, once you become a basic,
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then you can enroll in a paramedic program, again, with
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a local tech college. That's going to run about 2,000 hours.
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And with a paramedic curriculum, there's about 750 hours of
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clinical hours. Either we're going to be in the ERs,
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we're going to be on ambulances. surgical, ICU, shadowing doctors,
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getting to see patients at all different levels, learning medications,
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the whole gambit. So it takes from basic to the
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end of the paramedic program, anywhere from a year and
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a half to two years, depending on which college you
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go to, tech college or program you decide. If you
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take a gap like I did, it took a few years.
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Okay, interesting. I didn't realize you had so many on
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the job experiences that you had to do. So are
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those hours... scheduled hours where you're in a facility constantly,
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or is that as you are taking calls with EMS
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and then you're, you're going out and spending time with them?
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How does that work?
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So it is scheduled clinical hours. So some of it
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would be like, you're going to do 200 hours, like
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Eau Claire fire. So you spend 200 hours on their ambulance.
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Then you'll go and do 40 hours in an ICU
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at like regions or, um, Mayo and Eau Claire, depending
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on what tech college you're with. So it depends. You
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have to witness like two or three child deliveries. So
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depending if you're in the ER, at a hospital, and
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you can maybe, if there's a baby delivery, you jump
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out and go watch that if the mother allows. So
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they're scheduled. You devote your time to that. That's outside
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the classroom.
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So you really learn a lot more than hopefully you
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need to know, but you have it there in case
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you need it. Yep. What do you think people would
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be surprised to learn about the work that paramedics do?
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Well, it's not like they show on TV. It's a
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little bit different. We respond to all sorts of different calls.
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It varies. Sometimes calls go easy. Other times we find
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patients stuck between the toilet and the bathtub. Believe it
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or not, they do get stuck there. Nurses in the
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ERs will testify that we do like pillows. We will
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take a pillow. We make sure we always leave with
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a pillow out of the ER. Those are a commodity.
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We have good days and bad days. So the work
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is never ending and it always catches us off by surprise.
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Be nice to know what we're going to do today,
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but we don't know that.
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Absolutely. When you say that people don't, it's not like
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it seems on TV. What is that common misconception?
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Oh, the TV world is makes it seem so dramatic.
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You know, they fly in and they do these dramatic
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things and it's just, you know, If it's your job,
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that's your job. You're a professional. You go in. You
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do it. TV has all the worst-case scenarios every day,
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and we don't get those. We get the lift assist.
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We get the little old lady on Christmas Eve who's lonely,
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and we just want to ride to the hospital. So
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we pick her up, and she's got the night bag packed,
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and we jumped on our cot, and we talked to
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her the whole way to the hospital and some of
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those things. So it's just a little bit different than
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the perspective for ratings.
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Right.
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I agree.
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I agree. I wasn't quite sure what you meant, but
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I was hoping that it was that. So what is
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community paramedicine and how is it different from traditional EMS response?
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So community paramedicine is also known as like mobile integrated healthcare,
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depending on where you learned it. It's not an emergency response.
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People don't call 911. The community paramedic doesn't rush out
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the door. We usually know our patients ahead of time.
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We get referrals from doctors and we know what we're
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getting into and it's not acute, right? It's not an emergency.
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It's more chronic. It's more deliberate. We're going to go
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there with a specific goal to provided, you know, fall
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prevention to provide medication refills. And we're going to spend
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some time with the patients in their home, make sure
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they get what they need. And then we're going to
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leave them there and we're going to go see the
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next patient. So we're not transporting them. We are taking
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care of them in their home. Our goal is to
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keep them in their home is usually like a normal paramedic.
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We want to get them to a hospital and it's
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an emergency. Let's go to get them going. and it's
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usually more of a nine-to-five job, not nights, weekends, and
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holidays like a paramedic is. So it's a little slower pace,
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more relaxing, more structured.
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Do some of the same patients get frequent visits, or
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are they different patients all the time?
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Well, some of our CPs do call 911, and we
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do see them on both sides of the fence, and
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sometimes we have referred some of our more frequent 911
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patients into the CP program to try to eliminate the workload,
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both on the ER side and the 911 side. And
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that has proven to be a benefit of that program
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is by sending that CP, the community paramedic out there,
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they stopped calling 911. We can sort of take care
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of them a little bit. So they don't need to
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call us as often.
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Absolutely. I think that's one of the reasons that we
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formed our partnership about that. Um, So how does the
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partnership between Baldwin EMS and Western Wisconsin Health benefit the patients?
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It benefits the patients by basically keeping them in their home,
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keeping them healthy. We go out there, we allow them
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to still stay independent, right? We're providing them some medical
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needs that they, whatever it is from some simple education
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to wound care and By doing that in their house,
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they don't need to bug people for rides. They don't
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need to miss appointments because they can't get rides. They
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don't need to go look at a nursing home and
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leave their house. They don't need to skip appointments. Then
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now they got to call 911 because they don't have
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blood pressure medication. So keep them healthy. We keep them
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in their homes. You know, they're happier. They're healthier. Saves
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them money. You know, lessens the burden on the 911 system.
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It frees up the ER for the more acute, chronically
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sick patients that are coming in. And it's just sort
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of better for the whole system in general.
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When you say it saves them money, does a community
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paramedic visit cost the patient anything?
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Right now it does not, no. There's no bill to
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the patient. A lot of insurance don't cover it. Someday
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maybe there'll be some small bills, but that's insurance way
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down the line we will probably never ever really bill
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a patient it because in the long run it actually
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saves both the ambulance and the hospital networks money because
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most of these patients are on medicare medicaid reimbursement rates
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for 901 calls is very low for an ambulance and
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for me to send two three people out in an
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ambulance at two o'clock in the morning to take care
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of a patient we typically lose money to send one
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to send a community paramedic out at three o'clock in
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the afternoon in one vehicle to provide care for an
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hour it's you know not that much money so we
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actually end up cutting our losses drastically so it's a
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benefit to.
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Us right so we're able to partner to cover those
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expenses for now I know we've written a few grants
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to try to cover those expenses too and we've been
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lobbying with our local legislators to change some things up
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so that we can get some reimbursement that way and
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keep this going because it's been really successful Can you
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share a story about how community paramedicine has made a
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difference for someone in our community?
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There's a lot of them out there. This took me
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a while to pinpoint a couple of them when I
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was thinking about this, but one in particular that came
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to mind was during COVID, right after everything shut down,
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I think it was the first part of April, the
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hospital called them. It was an elderly couple, and they
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believed that the wife possibly had UTIs. And she didn't
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want to come to the hospital. Can't blame her. Everybody
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was really, you know, nervous. So I came in, I
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got the materials from the lab, went out there, sort
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of stood in the doorway of the hallway of the apartment,
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collected a urine sample from her. She went to the bathroom,
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provided me with the urine sample. I came back to here,
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dropped it off the lab. The lab was able to
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run it. Confirmed she did have a UTI. And then
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between the lab and the doctor, you guys were in
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the hospital staff here. You guys were able to get
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her antibiotics that evening. So she never actually physically had
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to come into the hospital to get the antibiotics or
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get the testing during a time when COVID was starting
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and everything was shut down. And being that she was
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already sick and she had numerous other health conditions, she
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would have been at a high risk for contracting COVID.
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And we kept her and her husband healthy. So I
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think that was just one of the many stories that
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has proven to be beneficial for this program.
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Yes. I'm sure you could tell probably many stories about
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COVID and how it changed the way that you probably
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delivered care as well as how we did. I know
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it was, it's hopefully something we won't have to deal
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with again in our lifetime. Right. Um, what are you
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most proud of when you think about Baldwin EMS and
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the role it plays in our community?
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I'm just proud of the staff we have at Baldwin EMS.
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We have two community paramedics right now that are going
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out providing care. Myself and two other full-time staff members
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took the time out to get community paramedics certified to
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help fill in. You know, those are evenings that we
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had to spend taking classes and it wasn't twisting arms.
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It was who wants to do this? And it was volunteers, right?
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It was, we want to go out and help these people.
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And it's just You know, it's awesome to see that
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we have those providers that want to provide care to
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the people in the community. And it's not a, do
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I have to, it's I want to. And that's what's
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really awesome to see. And it's awesome to see that
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we have a hospital network with Western Wisconsin Health that
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has the same passion to do that for the community.
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And that's just something that I'm very proud to be
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part of in this area.
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Absolutely. Absolutely. I think your new beautiful building is another
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benefit to our community. I know we get to spend
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some time there in the training room. Can you tell
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us a little bit about that new facility and how
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it's helped you be able to deliver better care?
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Yes. In February of 24, we moved into our new
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ambulance building over there on Cedar, just past the Wisconsin
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Credit Union. The Village of Baldwin built it for us.
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We're very grateful. Our old building was old. It was
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small and cramped. For the full-time staff, we worked in
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an inside room with no windows, very little airflow. Our
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new building is designed for growth. We can sleep all
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the staff that's on call at night. So we used
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to have staff sleeping on couches or in the back
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of the ambulances or in pickup trucks. The new building
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allows us to train our staff. We have the space
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for training. We have a kitchen that doesn't flood.
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Well, it's important not to flood that, right? That must
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be a story behind that.
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Every spring. Okay. But it allowed us to be able
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to provide the living accommodations to encourage staff to stay
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at the station. So it helped develop more of a
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family-like atmosphere on the crew. They do crew dinners now
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much more frequently, pretty much every night. Even the people
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that live in town come down if they don't have Family,
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they come down by themselves, but oftentimes you'll see the
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spouse and the kids there too, eating dinner with the crew.
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We train, they have a gas grill outside, gas fire pit,
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and in the evenings they're out there hanging out. It's
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become more of a family-like atmosphere. We are fully staffed
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with volunteers. We have a wait list for employees. So
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it's been a, just helped solidify the service.
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That is really wonderful. We're very lucky in Baldwin to
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be able to have that. What is the service area
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that you cover?
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We cover roughly 250 square miles of St. Croix County,
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sort of the central, southern, eastern part of it. We
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go from the outskirts of Roberts in the south eastern
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part of Warren Township all the way to the Dunn
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County line on 94, so we get The southern townships,
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we also cover the village of Hammond, Baldwin, obviously, Woodville,
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and Wilson. We get up into Springfield Township, Baldwin, Hammond,
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Aaron Prairie. Not all the townships. We share some of
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that with Glenwood City and New Richmond. We share Katy
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with Spring Valley. But it's geopolitical boundaries. We cover 13 municipalities.
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That's a lot bigger than I thought. How many different
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vehicles do you have?
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We have three ambulances, two fly cars, those Ford Explorers,
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one pickup truck that can pull a UTV on a
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trailer or a disaster trailer.
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That's more robust than I imagined as well. So I
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think I'm learning quite a bit about Baldwin EMS today.
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So you mentioned before that you went to school for
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teaching and then at this new facility that you have
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a training space. Do you do any specific training externally
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for other people in the community, any CPR training classes
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or anything like that?
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Yeah, we're actually an American Heart Association training site. So
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we can train for CPR, ACLS, and PELS. So we
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can train instructors or provide those classes for either first-time
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people to get their initial certification or renewal certification for those.
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Myself and several staff members are instructors. So we host
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classes on a regular basis. We work with local community
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education for both Baldwin and we're working with St. Croix
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Central to be on the community ed list. So we
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work with them and we do a babysitter training first
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aid for those middle schoolers that want to get into babysitting.
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Okay. And is signing up for that through that community
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ed magazine?
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Yep.
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Is that how people would be able to sign up
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for that if they needed to?
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Yeah, the Baldwin District website, the community ed link.
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Yep. Do you still do bike helmet fitting?
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We do not. Molly Lambert took that over here.
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Okay.
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They had better storage facilities for bike helmets.
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Great. How about any type of like child seat safety
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checks or anything like that?
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We work with you guys. We host, I think, quarterly,
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you guys use our apparatus bay to do car seat clinics.
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And we just had the car seat clinic guy out
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here teaching a class for new instructors or technicians.
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Okay.
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So we have people at our station all the time
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doing classes for various sorts of things.
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So many other ways that we partner other than the
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community paramedic program.
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We're always working. Now we got Red Cross Blood Drive.
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We work with you guys. You guys push them our way.
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So we host that every eight weeks at our station.
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You know, I don't know that we push them your
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way because we still host them here too. So I
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think that there's plenty of opportunities for listeners to go
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and donate blood if they want at either our facility
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or yours.
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Go to the website. Correct. Get an appointment.
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Yes. Very good. We always like to wrap up our
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episodes by asking you what drives you. Tell us a
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little bit about, you know, Tom and your purpose and
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your why.
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I mean, like I said, I started off because I
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didn't know how to help somebody if they're injured and
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it just kept snowballing from there. I just enjoy helping
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people and being there when they need help and it
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just keeps going and we keep trying to be on
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the forefront of what is the next thing, the best
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thing they can do from, you know, we put ultrasounds
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on our trucks a few years ago. We just put
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antibiotics on our ambulances here last week for open fractures.
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We just want to keep helping the community. Whatever the
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next thing is that can benefit them, we're going to
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try to get on our trucks.
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You know, with the evolution of everything, technology, you think
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about all of these pieces that have made delivering care
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easier for us and we're able to save lives in
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many different ways. So it is kind of exciting to
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see that. Good. Well, thank you for joining us and
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sharing more about the important work Baldwin EMS is doing
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in our community. The Community Paramedic Program is a great
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example of what can happen when local health care partners
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work together to bring care beyond the walls of the
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hospital and directly to the people who need it most.
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At Western Wisconsin Health, we believe in building a healthier
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tomorrow together. Partnerships like this remind us that improving the
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health of our communities is truly a team effort. Thank
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you for listening to Redefining Rural Healthcare. We hope you'll
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join us for our next episode as we continue sharing
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the people, ideas, and partnerships that are making a difference
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in rural healthcare. And as always, remember, your health is
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your wealth.
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Thank you for listening and be sure to subscribe so
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you don't miss one minute of this important health information.
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Visit www.health.org to learn more about all of the services
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we offer. Thanks for joining us through this journey and
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helping us redefine rural healthcare. Till next time.
