Last month The Bulletin, one of our local newspapers, published an article on the Las Cruces Fire Department’s (LCFD) Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) program. The article highlighted the amazing work that MIH coordinator Paul Ford and his team have been doing in our community since 2016, with additional services added during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as food and prescription delivery.
Ford developed MIH in response to LCFD’s high number of emergency-services calls from a small number of Las Cruces residents. Many times, these calls to 911 were not typical emergency calls. Instead, they were crisis calls requesting assistance with transportation, getting out of bed, and other activities of daily living. Many callers were older adults and people with disabilities. Many did not have primary care providers. The MIH team responds to these crises and works longer term with program participants to get them access to the resources they need so that they no longer need to call 911.
The Bulletin article highlights some of the incredible results Ford’s MIH program has achieved, including that 29 out of 30 MIH “graduates” now have primary care providers. Our residency program has been involved with MIH since its founding, with residents deployed with MIH staff during their population health rotation to provide medical assessments and assist program participants with establishing primary care providers. Residents report that they learn quite a bit about the issues facing our local community in just one half day working with Ford, and many find ways to continue to ride with the MIH team even when they have finished their rotation.