Doctors Make House Calls On Tablets Carried By Houston Firefighters [NPR.org]

Samantha Sangenito 4/9/1512:00 PM

It seems like every firefighter you ask can rattle off examples of 911 calls that didn't come even close to being life-threatening.

"A spider bite that's two or three weeks old," says Jeff Jacobs. "A headache, or a laceration," says Ashley Histand.

Alberto Vela remembers another call from a woman who said, "This medicine's not working; now you need to take me to the hospital so I can get a different medication."

Tyler Hooper describes those calls they shouldn't be getting as "anything from simple colds to toothaches, stubbed toes to paper cuts."

Hooper drives the busiest ambulance in Houston, based in a firehouse 3 miles east of the old Astrodome. Last year the rescue vehicle made more than 5,000 trips, and some of those can be pretty frustrating, he says.

[For more of this story, written by Carrie Feibel, go to http://www.npr.org/blogs/healt...houston-firefighters]

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This is a great idea. I saw some really incredibly unnecessary ER runs in residency in Indianapolis. Over time this could save lots of money. It is too bad there wasn't a way for the patient to call in w/an iPad or something and FaceTime and they could save even more money! Which could be used to provide good health care or mental health services to folks in need!

4/9/154:01 PM

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