LIMA — The hardest part of a hospital stay often starts the day a patient goes home — new medications, follow-up instructions, follow-up appointments, and no nurse down the hall. Mercy Health is launching a program in Allen County this month built to stand in that gap: its new Community Paramedicine Program, pairing specially trained paramedics with patients who need extra support after discharge, Mercy Health announced on November 9.
The program is designed to help patients successfully transition from hospital to home while reducing avoidable emergency department visits and hospital readmissions, according to Mercy Health. Community paramedics will make in-home visits to help patients understand medications, follow treatment plans, address barriers to care, and connect with community resources.
"Many of the challenges patients face happen after they leave the hospital," Ali Twining, director of field operations for Mercy Health Regional Transport, said in Mercy Health’s announcement. "This program allows us to meet patients where they are, helping them navigate recovery, avoid unnecessary complications and stay healthy in their homes."
Hospital discharge planners and case management teams will identify patients who meet established clinical criteria and could benefit from additional support after leaving the hospital, including those recovering from congestive heart failure, COPD, sepsis, and falls or weakness, Mercy Health said.
The program is also intended to help patients whose recovery may be complicated by transportation challenges, medication management needs, or other social barriers to care, according to the announcement. Patients who do not qualify for home health, hospice, or similar benefit-covered services may also be eligible — a group that can fall through the cracks of the usual discharge system. Participation in the program is voluntary.
In practice, a community paramedicine visit is part medical check and part detective work, according to Mercy Health’s description of the program: the paramedic reviews the patient’s medications with them at home, walks through the treatment plan the hospital sent home, and looks for the barriers that quietly undo recoveries — a prescription that was never picked up, a follow-up appointment with no ride to get there, a discharge instruction that made sense in the hospital and none at the kitchen table — then connects the patient with community resources that can remove them.
Working collaboratively with primary care providers, care coordinators, case managers, community health workers and the Mercy Health Residency Clinic, the Community Paramedicine team will provide personalized follow-up support that complements, but does not replace, a patient’s relationship with their healthcare provider, Mercy Health said. The team will help reinforce care plans, address barriers to recovery and connect patients with resources that support long-term health and independence.
"This program is another example of Mercy Health’s commitment to extending care beyond the walls of our hospitals and clinics," Tyler Smith, director of Community Health for Mercy Health — Lima, said in the announcement. "By partnering with local providers and community organizations, we’re creating a stronger support system for some of our most vulnerable residents and helping them access the right care at the right time."
Funding for the initiative is being provided through Mercy Health Community Health, the Mercy Health Foundation and grant opportunities through the Ohio Department of Health’s Rural Health Transformation Program, according to Mercy Health.
The Lima launch adds a new layer to a Northwest Ohio health landscape that has been building out care for families in recent weeks — in Wood County, a new Bowling Green children’s crisis center is waiting on state certification before it can take its first young patients, and in Toledo, a November 21 blood drive pairs Big Brothers Big Sisters with the Red Cross. The common thread is care moving closer to where people actually live.
Community paramedicine is built on a simple observation: paramedics already know the neighborhoods, the apartment buildings and the regular patients, and a scheduled home visit from one of them can catch a medication mix-up, a missed meal-delivery problem or a worsening symptom before it becomes another 911 call and another emergency department visit. For Allen County patients recovering from heart failure, COPD or sepsis — conditions where the first days at home are the riskiest — that visit can be the difference between recovery and readmission.
What happens next is the rollout itself: the program launches in Allen County this month, with discharge planners and case management teams at Mercy Health beginning to identify the first patients who meet the clinical criteria. Residents who want to learn more about community health programs and services available in the region can visit mercy.com, Mercy Health said.