Jackman pilot program enhances paramedic role; could be model for state
Photo / Courtesy SMCC
Cedrick Wa Bisembo takes the blood pressure of Evie Wellman during an EMT class at Southern Maine Community College last year. A pilot program in Jackman that gives paramedics a larger role, which steps from passage of a state law this year allowing the move, could be a model for EMT services across Maine.
A pilot training program in Jackman that will expand paramedic capabilities may become a model that could improve health care access in rural parts of the state.
Maine Emergency Medical Service, part of the state Department of Public Safety, has given the go-ahead to the Critical Access Integrated Paramedic program, which is part of a telemedicine initiative in Jackman. The effort is led by the town, North East Mobile Health Services, Penobscot Community Health Care and St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor.
The program comes after a new law signed by Gov. Janet Mills on March 17 as part of the state's emergency coronavirus response, allowed EMTs and other emergency medical services personnel to treat patients within a hospital setting, with the hospital's approval, as long as the treatment is within the scope of their training and legally defined roles.
The Jackman program trains paramedics to provide expanded clinical skills, thereby enabling them to fill gaps in staffing at the Jackman Community Health Clinic so it can maintain round-the-clock urgent and advanced life support coverage. If successful, it could be expanded to other areas of Maine, officials said.
The clinic, in northern Somerset County near the Canada border, and operated by Penobscot Community Health Center, had provided 24-hour service for years, most recently as part of Augusta-based MaineGeneral Health. The health system ended its services there in 2018 after running at a loss for a decade. The nearest hospital is Northern Light C.A. Dean Hospital, about an hour's drive away in Greenville.
Expanded clinical skills that paramedics will be trained to provide include fiberglass splinting, non-sedated joint dislocation reduction, urinary catheter placement, wound management, local and regional anesthesia, soft tissue acute foreign body removal, rapid sequence intubation, ventilator management, EENT procedures and ultrasounds. In addition, skills of the medical assistant will have been taught by PCHC during orientation and training, including telemedicine facilitation and other procedures as identified by the Medical Oversight Committee or the Community Oversight Committee, a release announcing the program said.
North East Mobile Health Services CEO Robert Russell says the program offers "an alternative model to meet the needs of urgent medical care to our neighbors in the Moose River Valley and at the same time expanding the clinical scope of paramedics in Maine. Not only are we bringing highly trained paramedics with a specialized skillset to a rural community, but we are creating a pathway for paramedics that want to advance their careers in medicine, helping them become physician assistants or physicians.”
The Jackman Community Health Clinic, because of funding and staffing challenges, earlier this year had to end after-hours coverage. Jackman officials approached Scarborough-based North East Mobile Health Services — which provides service through northern New England and eastern Canada., and is the state's largest ambulance service — about partnering on the program.
“The Critical Access Integrated Paramedic program is one of those rare programs in health care that are a win for everyone,” said Jonnathan Busko, the program’s medical director. “The citizens of the Moose River Valley will continue to receive high quality urgent and emergency care and gain paramedic level ambulance service; the healthcare system benefits because this program meets the goals of the quadruple aim; and society benefits because this program can be replicated in any area with challenges to health care access.”
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