Littleton Endorsed as Community Paramedic
Memorial Hospital Paramedic Jeremy Littletonhas completed a Community Paramedic Academic Certificate program offered through Idaho State University and has been endorsed by the State of Wyoming as a Community EMS Practitioner. This has included an additional year of coursework on top of his Paramedics Associates degree.
According to Idaho State University, Community Paramedics is an emerging healthcare profession that allows paramedics to operate in expanded roles to provide healthcare services to underserved populations. Working in a primary care role, community paramedics can meet the needs of those living with chronic illness and as well as those hospital discharge patients by providing follow-up care and linking patients to available community services. This expanded role for paramedics is being deployed internationally, to fill gaps in available healthcare services and to proactively care for patients who would otherwise unnecessarily use emergency rooms.
The coursework includes the role of the community paramedic within the healthcare system, identifying community resource gaps, healthcare system finances, the factors involved in a patient-centered medical home, and developing and analyzing a community needs assessment. The curriculum also focuses on the pathology of chronic conditions encountered both in primary care or hospital discharge situations.
Jeremy comments that this course has given him a deeper knowledge base of common ailments and chronic conditions many in our community live with. This will enable him to be a bridge between the patient and their primary providers. He can visit patients at home to check on them, educate them and evaluate how they are dealing with their ailments. This should help keep many from coming into the Emergency Room for non-emergent issues. He will also work closely with Solutions for Life and Converse County Aging Services in evaluating and treating the mental health of those in our community, in particular, the elderly.
Jeremy says his next step will be to work with MHCC providers, educating them about the program and how they can take advantage of this new outreach in caring for their patients.
Please join our entire organization in congratulating Jeremy on this tremendous step in furthering his education but also furthering his commitment to providing care to our community!