ROCHESTER, N.Y. – If you call 911 and you’re not really in a life or death situation, you may be asked if you’d be willing to speak with a nurse navigator instead of automatically being sent an ambulance.

The nurse navigator program is one of a number of solutions that Monroe County and the City of Rochester are using to try and help ease the current health care crisis in our community.  The program was launched in January of 2022 which means there is now a solid set of data on how and when it’s being used.   

“We’ve processed more than 7,000 callers and successfully navigated off the system about 3,000 folks that didn’t get an ambulance and didn’t need to go to an emergency department for their care,” says Dr. Jeremy Cushman, the Emergency Medical Director for the City of Rochester and Monroe County,  “70% of them, could stay in their home, they were provided the guidance that they needed by a nurse or connected with a physician, the other 30% were successfully transferred or transported I should say, to one of our partner urgent cares or clinics, in their community.”

And that, ultimately, helps all of us.

“We’ve saved over $7 million dollars on health care costs, had the patient gone, using an ambulance to an emergency department,” explains Dr. Cushman.

Every time someone uses a nurse navigator, they get a survey after the fact, and the results highlight the bigger issue: “Only 25% of those callers thought that they had an emergency, which means that 75% of the callers were calling because they couldn’t get a ride, they didn’t know where to go, they didn’t know how to access healthcare or they thought they would be seen quicker,” Dr. Cushman explains.

How fast you get treatment at the emergency room depends on how sick you are, not how you get there. But if transportation is an issue, the nurse navigator will send a Lyft to pick you up and drop you off at a health care facility.

“You’ve recently covered stories right, we know that wait times in emergency departments across the country are through the roof so in many cases we’re talking about someone who can stay in their home, get guidance from a nurse or a physician and never have to go to an emergency department, that’s care faster,” says Dr. Cushman.

The nurse navigator program is optional and voluntary.  It’s only offered to callers with non-life threatening issues.  If you call 911 and insist on an ambulance, you’ll still get one but it could take time depending on the severity of your illness or injury. 

Rochester was one of the first areas in the country to participate in the nurse navigator program.  It is required under the City of Rochester’s contract for EMS with AMR and the cost is currently being covered by AMR.  There are now more than three dozen cities across the country who have started a similar program.

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