El Cajon is changing the way it responds to medical emergencies by introducing a program that will divert less serious 911 calls to nurses instead of sending an entire ambulance crew.
The city of El Cajon receives an average of 16,000 911 calls each year, but nearly a third of these calls are not true emergencies, and are not in need of the ambulance and fire truck that are routinely sent out to respond.
In an interview, Steve Swaney, Heartland Fire-Rescue chief, said “We’ve done the same thing for 40 years: Someone calls 911 and we send everybody. It’s not sustainable.”
El Cajon's City Council has responded by voting to fund a first-in-the-region pilot program that will employ nurses to respond to some calls.
Currently, when a 911 call is made in El Cajon, you speak with a dispatcher from Heartland Communications Facility Authority who asks questions that help them determine how serious your situation is. They assign a letter grade based on severity but EMTs are still called out to respond regardless of the severity.
The new program would give dispatchers the option of sending callers to a 24/7 call center of "nurse navigators."
The nurses will be well-trained to quickly assess threats, if immediate medical attention is not required, they may help callers find non-emergency medical care, schedule rides to get care, and appointments to see physicians.
While the new program is still being finalized and will require additional approval from the city and county of San Diego, it could go into effect by the summer of 2022. The City of El Cajon has allocated a budget of $300,000 for the pilot program, which it estimates could cover over 5,000 calls.
San Bernardino County, Reno, Louisville, and Washington D.C. have implemented similar programs.