Bloomberg's Radar? What Works Mesa > Better Results For Residents



More than eight years ago, the Mesa Fire and Medical Department began dispatching smaller, two-person trucks to low-level 911 calls, eliminating the need to send pricier fire engines to every request for help. Other cities did that also to reduce the costs of 911 emergency response.

Using a lot of indefinite pronouns like "it" and "they", two days ago KJZZ published a piece written by Phil Litzman that says 'according to Mesa mayor John Giles, it's how they got on Bloomberg's radar" for being selected as one of eight cities in What Work Cities [see a previous post on this site for more complete information about WWC]

Data Mining in Mesa Gets Bloomberg's Attention

http://kjzz.org/content/177W182/data-mining-mesa-gets-bloombergs-attention

 

 

Mesa's Community Care units have come a long way since their start as two-paramedic trucks in 2006. The initiative for Community Care Response did not originate in Mesa but was started in different cities across America, basically to reduce the billing costs for 911 calls emergency response - that alone cannot be the reason, cited in the KJZZ interview with John Giles, that the City of Mesa was selected to be included.

 

The Mesa Fire and Medical Department applied for and received a second grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [CMS] in September of last year for over $12.5 million to get a formal, three-year trial off the ground to expand a program, called the Community Care Response Initiative.
The pilot could have national implications for the healthcare delivery system.
Better patient care isn’t the only benefit. According to Mary Cameli, an assistant chief at the Mesa Fire Department, The department will do mock  billing to find out how much more these situations would have cost if patients had been taken straight to the emergency room per standard practice. She expects the data will show these programs save residents and the health care system a great deal of money.
The Mayor of Mesa at that time was Alex Finter, a former firefighter, who now holds a seat on the City Council

For details about the Round Two Grant from CMS look here:
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src="http://innovation.cms/gov/CMMIMapWidget/widget.html">/iframe>
http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/Health-Care-Innovation-Awards-Round-Two/Arizona.html