Mount Sinai becomes the first health care system in New York to offer telehealth services to patients who call 911 with less serious injuries and conditions.
This effort, led by the Mount Sinai Emergency Medical Services, is part of a federal pilot program called Emergency Triage, Treatment and Transport, or “ET3.”
Mount Sinai ambulances make about 100,000 911 calls a year.
About 10 percent of these calls involve patients with minor conditions.
When someone calls 911 under this new pilot program and a Mount Sinai ambulance arrives, the EMTs and paramedics perform their standard patient assessment.
If they determine that a patient does not require urgent care and meets specific criteria, teams stay on site and use the tablets to connect with the Mount Sinai command center.
Within minutes, an ER doctor connects with the patient via the screen and provides telehealth assistance.
This service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
For those patients who don’t require an emergency room visit, an emergency medicine provider will connect with them via video call within minutes and provide medical assistance.
The program seeks to save thousands of these patients from having to go to the emergency room, saving them time and, in some cases, thousands of dollars in utility bills.
It will also be expanded beyond telehealth services in the coming months.
