Improving Outcomes for Repeat/Frequent 911 Callers to Emergency Services

Fellows: Eunhye Ahn, Harriet Sands, Christian Shewmake, Mani Sotoodeh

Technical Mentor: Maren Eckhoff 

Project Manager: Sam Short

Project Partner: Memphis Fire Department

One of Memphis Fire Department’s (MFD) key priorities is to provide effective medical care and health management through quality emergency services to the citizens and visitors of the Memphis area. 

HUGS is a scheme implemented by MFD emergency medical service (EMS) that focuses on high frequency 911 callers, who are usually from vulnerable populations and have limited access to a doctor as their primary healthcare provider. Patients enrolled in HUGS receive preemptive care, or an alternate emergency medical response, to better provide the right care at the right time. The scheme also reduces demand on MFD EMS and increases ambulance unit availability.

Given the success of HUGS, we will work with MFD to identify patients who have the potential to become high frequency 911 callers; this will enable MFD to continue to proactively provide the right care at the right time and reduce the strain on the ambulance unit.