BLOOMINGTON — Bloomington Fire’s Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) program recently purchased telemedicine kits, the first MIH program in the United States to do so, the city announced in a news release.
The kits, from Tech4Life, allow paramedics to get real-time vitals of a patient like vital signs, ECG readings, oxygen saturation levels.
“These kits will help our team members provide even better medical assessments for our patients by providing real time data,” says Shelby VanDerMoere, MIH Program Manager. “Truly, this is telemedicine at the highest level currently available.”
MIH purchased the telemedicine kits through a grant from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security.
In September, Bloomington Fire used a $75,000 grant to purchase a new vehicle to be used by two Community EMT’s and a Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV) used for special events and off-road areas.
The Mobile Integrated Healthcare program was launched in 2022 as a way to provide additional medical services that may not require the need of an ambulance or fire truck.
In most situations, firefighters respond to 911 calls that are not fire related, such as when someone falls and needs help getting up. Sending a fire truck and firefighters to these situations is "overkill and doesn’t make sense," the city said on the program website.
Community EMTs are dispatched to where patients are at before or after a 911 call is placed because some situations do not require a police officer or firefighter to respond. Most MIH units conduct work centered on improve quality of life, prevent additional nonemergency calls, and follow up with previous calls for service.
The city says the volume of repetitive non-emergency calls has significantly decreased since the MIH program began.
