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Detroit Fire Department proposes 'nurse navigation' to divert low‑priority 911 calls; pilot targeted for January
Summary
Detroit Fire Department officials told the council they receive roughly 150,000 911 calls annually, with about 25% low‑priority; the department proposed routing those calls to nurses to triage care, reduce unnecessary ambulance dispatches and lower costs, with a vendor selection timeline through Q4 and a planned pilot in January.
Detroit Fire Department officials presented a nurse-navigation model to the Public Health and Safety committee on June 16 aimed at reducing nonemergent ambulance responses by routing low‑priority 911 calls to nurses.
Derek Hellman, second deputy commissioner for the fire department, described the problem: "The Detroit Fire Department sees approximately 25% of our requests are low priority," and said the department handles roughly 150,000 calls a year. Under the proposed model, dispatchers would classify calls by priority and transfer low-priority calls to on-call nurses who would assess whether the situation requires ambulance transport, can be handled by telehealth or urgent care, or can be scheduled for later transport.
Hellman said the city is in a vendor bid-review phase and expects to complete vendor selection in Q3, negotiate a contract in Q4 and start a pilot in January; a soft rollout would take place in early Q1, with full monitoring before any large-scale expansion. He also said some vendor options include translation capacity for up to 200 languages, addressing language-access concerns raised by committee members.
Council members responded with support and practical questions. Member Waters said nurse triage is similar to options used by major health systems, and the chair pressed for coordination with the city health department and clarification about language access; Hellman confirmed vendor translation services and telehealth integration. Staff said they will return with vendor details when contracts are available.
Next steps: the department is finalizing bids and expected to return to council with vendor details and more implementation information before the planned pilot.
