Enhancing emergency medical services throughout the County of San Diego

A THREE-stage plan to implement a range of paramedic-based community health initiatives will improve emergency medical services in rural areas. The Board of Supervisors received an update on what is in place now and what will soon be launched.

The first phase began in 2021 and includes County Fire’s Community Health and Injury Prevention Program.

County Fire, Emergency Medical Services and CAL FIRE are reaching hard-to-serve populations and reducing health disparities in our backcountry where many residents are older, lower income, and often speak a language other than English. Trainings are offered to residents to increase survival rates during emergency medical incidents. Hands-only CPR and Stop the Bleed interventions can be critical in the moments before paramedics arrive at an emergency.

In the Mountain Empire community, County Fire paramedics and nurses will soon work with patients recently discharged from Sharp Grossmont Hospital to provide in-home medical support, in concert with their primary care physicians. This program is a partnership with the Grossmont Healthcare District and the County Health and Human Services Agency to better support vulnerable residents in our rural communities by reducing hospital readmissions.

The Community Paramedicine and Triage to Alternate Destination model is the second phase of the plan and will offer

Emergency Medical Services agencies opportunities to better serve residents in the field with additional services.

Under the Community Paramedic model, specially trained paramedics may offer case management for frequent 911 users or public health collaboration for tuberculosis patients. The second phase also includes Triage to Alternate Destination. Under this new state plan, medically stable patients could be transported not to an emergency department, but instead go to a behavioral health facility or a sobering center.

The Board also received an update on emerging best practices that can fully support residents’ needs. Telehealth offers paramedics the ability to connect with patients in a virtual medical visit in the future. Paramedics may be able to assist a doctor who is providing direction virtually and perform physical assessments that matches each patient with the most appropriate level of medical care. Plans to extend the services could soon include paramedics, nurse practitioners or physician assistants helping with minor wound care, prescriptions and possibly vaccinations. All three phases of these health-focused plans can provide much-needed support to our district residents who are often far from traditional medical services and at the same time reducing health disparities for district residents.

(Chuck Westerheide/County of San Diego Communications Office) n

have offered families the opportunity for their children to receive a high-quality education with the rigor and supports needed to help students enter college and succeed,” said Mr. Oliver Sicat, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of Ednovate Schools and a Board Member of the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association. “Charter schools offer families the opportunity to be creative with design, curriculum, and supports to ensure students don’t just finish high school but are positioned well for what comes next: to enter college and succeed.” Ednovate schools are a network of public, tuition-free, high-performing college prep high schools in Los Angeles and Orange County that primarily serve first-generation collegebound students. They have a 99 percent college acceptance rate for their students.

California charter public schools are preparing students for college with focused learning content in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), global studies, language immersion, and various arts programs. As a result, charter public school students are being prepared to succeed in college, career, and life regardless of race, gender, religion, or zip code.

CCSA’s report Charter Public School Students in Focus: Asian American & Pacific Islanders found that AAPI charter school students from low-income communities outperform their traditional public school counterparts in both English Language Arts (ELA) and Math, on average. This difference is more strongly seen in ELA, where 44 percent of charter school students met or exceeded grade- level standards, compared to only 30 percent of district students.

“Students of all backgrounds deserve educational opportunities as creative and responsive to their varied interests as they are, and charter public schools provide successful school models that give every child the ability to achieve their own and their families’ aspirations,” said Myrna Castrejón, CCSA President and CEO. “California parents have said time and time again there need to be more high-quality choices for public education to be competitive in a global job market.”

The vision of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) is to build great public schools of joy and rigor that prepare all California students for success in college, career, community, and life. The mission of CCSA is to meet parent, educator, and community need for great public school options by supporting and advocating for high quality non-profit charter schools and sharing their success throughout California’s public schools. Parents interested in learning more about charter schools or to find a charter in their area may visit https://info.ccsa.org/ tagalog. (Advertising Supplement)