Medic Home Care brings community paramedicine to central Indiana
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA Zionsville paramedic is bringing back the old fashioned house call with a modern spin through his startup that works in an emerging area of health care called community paramedicine.
Shane Hardwick founded Medic Home Care after serving as a community paramedic for nearly a decade, going to patients’ homes on a regular basis for health checkups and noticing the difference it has made in their lives.
“When you’re seeing a 63% reduction in ER visits out of your patient population, that’s a win. That’s a big win,” Hardwick said.
Hardwick told Inside INdiana Business his company send the same paramedic to a central Indiana patient’s home once a week.
“We’re the eyes and ears of the doctor in the patient’s home,” he said. “We can get a fresh set of vital signs, blood sugar, A1c, any number of labs that we can draw off.”
Many families are using the service in to help their elderly loved one stay independent. Carol Brown, the daughter of a Medic Home Care Patient, said the service has been a vital part of keeping her mother at home rather than having to go into assisted living.
Medic Home Care says focusing on prevention helps patients avoid unnecessary trips to the ER and costly hospital stays by focusing on preventative measures.
“We’re identifying these problems ahead of time by lab draws and vital signs and identifying slip, trip and fall hazards within the house,” Hardwick said. “We’re there every week and we’re managing and we’re keeping an eye and doing small course corrections now so that it doesn’t wind up being a big big health crisis later.”
The weekly visits also help build a relationship with the patient. The company says the paramedic is like an extension of the family, helping with light household duties such as taking out the trash, getting the mail and keeping tabs on the patient’s overall well-being.
“I’ve had patients tell me we give them peace of mind,” said John Toller, a community paramedic with Medic Home Care. “Any time you can reduce people’s anxieties, that’s actually beneficial to their health as well.”
In addition to seniors, treating underserved communities such as those on Medicaid is another focus Hardwick says the pilot study showed a major benefit to payers.
“From a business standpoint, there was a five-fold return on investment for the payer that contracted us to go out and manage their patient population,” he said. “I know this works. I’ve seen it work for almost a decade in my full time job, and I can’t wait to see it expand and I want to see what happens next.”
The weekly home visit plans start at $475 per month. The community paramedics also help coordinate telehealth visits in which they can provide additional information when patients are talking with their doctors.
The company currently focuses on central Indiana but Hardwick’s hope is to put a paramedic in all 92 counties.