Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
Nurse navigation program diverts calls from EMS, screens about 6,000 callers yearly
Loading...
Summary
Wake County's Nurse Navigation (NurseNav) program, operating since March 2022 and now funded in FY26 with general funds, screened just over 6,000 callers in one year; about 43% did not require ambulance transport and the program equates to roughly seven ambulance responses avoided per day.
Wake County officials told the Public Safety Committee the county's Nurse Navigation program has reduced unnecessary ambulance responses and delivered high patient satisfaction since its March 2022 pilot.
Jonathan (Wake County EMS) described NurseNav as a transfer option from the Raleigh-Wake 911 center for callers who do not appear to have life-threatening emergencies. Calls routed to nurse navigators are handled by Global Medical Response (GMR), a contracted multistate provider. The program began as an ARPA-funded pilot in March 2022 and is funded in FY26 through county general funds.
The department reported that in a year's worth of data NurseNav screened just over 6,000 patients and that 43% did not require an ambulance. Of that group, about 21% were managed at home with self-care and primary-care follow-up; another share was steered to urgent care or clinics, with nonemergency transportation coordinated when needed. For callers who required ambulance transport after nursing screening, 54% needed basic life support rather than paramedic-level advanced life support; only about 2.3% required ALS after screening.
Jonathan said the program reduces EMS responses by the equivalent of about seven responses per day — roughly 2% of annual EMS call volume — and reports very high patient satisfaction from follow-up surveys (about 96% very or highly satisfied). He said GMR currently has capacity to handle more calls and the county has not reached the contractor's limits.
Committee members asked about behavioral-health calls and 988. Jonathan said 988 is not integrated into 911; however, callers to 911 with behavioral-health emergencies can be routed to the nurse line and that the nurse navigators have tools to manage many callers in crisis or to provide care navigation. When callers lack a primary-care provider the nurse navigators provide local clinic referral information but do not directly register a patient with a primary-care physician.
Committee members discussed the program's funding shift from ARPA to county general funds, potential for safely expanding eligible call types and coordination with 911 dispatch to increase appropriate referrals to NurseNav.
