Deputy Fire Chief, MIH/CRR Director
St John Fire Department
St John, Indiana, United States
I am current Deputy Fire Chief for the St John Fire Department where I also serve as the director of MIH (Mobile Integrated Health) and CRR (Community Risk Reduction program. I have been in the fire service for over 20 years in vastly differing demographical regions of our county. Being a paramedic and firefighter in these areas have given me a chance to see what the term "access to quality service" originates from and continues to mean. SDOH (Social Determinants of Health) issues are a larger portion of the problems we see on the MIH setting. Even more when when you add in the missing links on the 911 side of things. What if we merged our efforts in MIH and CRR to benefit our community instead of just the hospitals or Just the patients we are referred to? What if we made these programs a combined and used our available resources to benefit the community before they call us? With that in mind, I have been able to secure grants for the initial start up and currently have a grant to provide services for the next year with a solid foundation to continue the grant. Also we are building relationships and partnerships with stake holders including hospitals and the schools in our area to ensure the success of our programs.
When you think of MIH you instantly think of home visits for a medical purpose and a way to decrease hospital utilization. Our program is just that but with a lot more to offer. I was able to secure the first Health Department contract that provides funding for that portion of the program but, also provides funding for programs for our CRR efforts. The current programs we are running include CPR, Safe Sitter, Safe sleep, Car seat installation, Stop The Bleed, Safe @ Home, Smoke and Co detectors install and inspection, Handle with Care, and Impact (a safe driving and passenger class). We took the approach to not only show a benefit to the hospitals which we have 11 in our county but also show a benefit to the Fire Dept. During each visit for our medical patients we try to see where we can be of help.
Our programs are self running which means you can take advantage of all the programs or as the need arises. We work more of a patient navigator rather than any other one title. We see that the resources are out there but the average person has no way of knowing what is available. The needs are evaluated during any home visit including a 911 call and the person or situation is referred to the program for assistance. We monitor the incident reporting software to see what trends we are seeing to see what we can do before an emergency happens. We are able to provide resources directly to the community instead of having to refer them out where they may never follow up.
Disclosure information not submitted.
Merging MIH (Mobile Integrated Health) and CRR (Community Risk Reduction)
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM MST