Santa Clara County 911 calls could be diverted to 'nurse navigators' under pilot program

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. - Starting Wednesday, when you call 911 in parts of Santa Clara County, your phone call may be referred to what officials are calling "nurse navigators." 

If you call 911 and do not need immediate in-person response, a dispatcher may refer your call to a medical professional "trained to triage callers to the correct services."

The Nurse Navigator Program is a partnership with Global Medical Response (GMR), a Colorado-based emergency response company, which already provides ambulance services to the county through its transport company, AMR. 

Santa Clara County officials say the new protocol will not slow down emergency response times, but help connect callers with other resources. 

"We definitely want to reassure the public that this does not in any way hinder the delivery of life-saving help to those in need," said Dr. Kenneth Miller, medical director of the County’s Emergency Medical Services Agency.

According to Santa Clara County, callers do not need health insurance and will not be charged for receiving assistance. 

The pilot program is underway, beginning Wednesday, in the following South Bay cities: Gilroy, Morgan Hill, San Martin, Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, Campbell, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Saratoga. 

"If someone is calling because they don't feel well, they're sick, they have a cold, those types of responses will most likely go down the nurse navigator path where they can get specific help from a registered nurse to attend their needs," Trisha Adcock, Director of the Santa Clara County 911 Communications Center said.

"Rather than just giving one tool which is a response and transport to the hospital, we’re adding another tool set to how we can treat the community, so it's giving us more services rather than taking services away," Nick Clay, the Santa Clara County EMS Director said.

These 911 dispatchers triage incoming calls, and lower level medical calls get sent to the partner company GMR which has 30 similar programs nationwide. Callers would be directly transferred to urgent care, a medical clinic or a telehealth doctor. 

"We have a national call center and that's where the nurses are staffed. So the other nurse navigation programs across the country utilize the same center. The nurses used in this program are California licensed nurses," said Darryl McClanahan, Regional Director for Global Medical Response.

McClanahan says GMR will assume all the costs of the pilot program, and there will be no cost to 911 callers or the county.

Santa Clara County says they hope the program will free up resources for the most urgent calls.

"You end up with someone who needs a prescription refill and that means the person who's having a heart attack might not be getting care because of lower acuity calls," said Nick Clay, EMS Director for Santa Clara County.

Some residents said they like the idea  but also have concerns.

"So will the people in 911 have training to determine whether to get an ambulance or not?" Gie Hubilla, a Campbell resident, wondered.

"They ask so many questions, and you're dying, and you're trying to answer the questions, so they have to come up with good questions so it doesn't take 10 minutes to get to an ambulance," Donna Ferrando of Campbell said. .

"Lots of people speaking different languages, so here, we're from the Philippines," Rodel Hubilla of Campbell said.

"Everything does depend on the cost, how the taxes are affected, but seems it would be cheaper in the long run," Stan Skarbeck of Campbell said.

Adcock says the 81 dispatchers received 30 days of training in the proprietary medical triage system that was created by GMR. The dispatchers and nurse navigators at the call center also have access to translation services.

The pilot program is set to last three to six months. Clay says the county plans to evaluate the data and could expand the program county-wide. GMR would not say how much the service might cost after the pilot program if it were expanded to the entire county. 

Contra Costa County Fire Protection District is considering a similar service with GMR that could cost up to $600,000 for the nurse navigation program.