City of Rochester/Monroe County/AMR
News Release
For Immediate Release: January 10, 2022
Mayor Malik D. Evans, County Executive Adam J. Bello Launch Nurse Navigation Program in Collaboration with AMR
Program Provides Residents Access to Greater Care Options to Meet Specific Medical Needs
(Rochester, NY) – Mayor Malik D. Evans and Monroe County Executive Adam J. Bello, in collaboration with American Medical Response (AMR), today announced the launch of the Rochester/Monroe County Nurse Navigation program to help city and county residents and visitors quickly reach the most appropriate level of care when calling 9-1-1. The Nurse Navigation program provides greater access to a wider variety of care options to meet callers’ specific needs, which may include a virtual visit with a physician.
The program’s goal is to increase the availability of emergency response personnel to respond to life-threatening emergencies and reduce emergency department overcrowding. Calls to 9-1-1 for specific, non-life threatening injuries or illnesses are routed to a New York-licensed nurse. The nurse assesses the caller’s symptoms and facilitates the most appropriate medical care, such as a virtual visit with an emergency physician or nurse, instructions on self-care, or transport to a local healthcare provider, including clinics, urgent care centers, or if needed, a hospital emergency department.
The Nurse Navigation program will alleviate pressure on EMS systems and hospitals while educating communities on the appropriate use of 9-1-1 so systems function more efficiently — making more ambulances, EMTs and paramedics available to respond to life-threatening emergencies throughout the city and county. Nurse Navigation will help reduce Emergency Department overcrowding and improve timeliness of care for people needing medical treatment in our community.
Nurse Navigation enables fire and EMS agencies to provide timely, appropriate and quality patient care while controlling costs, improving outcomes, and reducing reliance on hospital emergency departments for primary healthcare.
“Nurse Navigation is proven to work in other cities and one of our primary roles is to provide our citizens with high-quality municipal government services,” said Mayor Evans. “This project is an excellent example of a public-private collaboration that will improve quality of life. It delivers an innovative solution to some of the issues we’re seeing around staffing shortages and emergency room overcrowding. I’m grateful to County Executive Bello, AMR and all of our community’s first responders, telecommunicators, dispatchers and healthcare providers for their contributions in keeping Rochester’s citizens safe and healthy.”
“The Nurse Navigation Program will modernize our community’s emergency medical response and help alleviate the strain on local ambulance crews and hospitals at a time when COVID-19 continues to spread,” said Monroe County Executive Adam Bello. “Thank you to all our first responders who work tirelessly to help our residents.”
“We are proud of our long-term partnership with Rochester and Monroe County to help people get the right care at the right time, and we are excited to leverage our national expertise and integrated healthcare solutions to expand access to care, improve patient experience and increase population health throughout the region,” said Tim Frost, Regional Director for Global Medical Response, the parent company to AMR. “The program will allow us to better serve area residents by ensuring that callers with lower acuity complaints are presented with more innovative paths to treatment that are often closer to home, where medical treatment can be received faster than a visit to a hospital emergency department.”
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The mission of the City of Rochester administration of Mayor Malik D. Evans is to promote positive systemic and structural change by providing transparent and collaborative leadership, offering equitable access to essential municipal services, enabling productive intergovernmental, private, and non-profit partnerships, and promoting increased quality of life through investments that create vibrant neighborhoods and employment opportunities, making Rochester a hope-filled city with an exciting future. For more information, visit www.cityofrochester.gov.
About American Medical Response (AMR): American Medical Response, Inc., America’s leading provider of medical transportation, provides services in 40 states and the District of Columbia. More than 28,000 AMR paramedics, EMTs, RNs and other professionals work together to transport more than 4.8 million patients nationwide each year in critical, emergency and non-emergency situations. AMR also provides fire services through Rural Metro Fire Department, www.ruralmetrofire.com. For more information about AMR, visit www.amr.net and follow American Medical Response on Facebook @AMR_Social on Twitter and Instagram.
AMR is part of the Global Medical Response family. Global Medical Response, Inc. is the industry-leading air, ground, specialty and residential fire services, and managed medical transportation organization. With more than 38,000 employees, GMR delivers compassionate, quality medical care, primarily in the areas of emergency and patient relocation services in the United States and around the world. For more information, visit www.globalmedicalresponse.com.