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Stakeholders urge investments in 988, mobile crisis and EMS data systems to help rural Wyoming
Summary
Advocacy groups and vendors recommended Wyoming use Rural Health Transformation funds to stabilize the 988 crisis line, expand warmline/warm-hand-off services, fund alternative non-law-enforcement transport, and build a statewide EMS/911 data coordination system to enable triage, community paramedicine, and hospital diversion.
Stakeholders told the Joint Labor, Health & Social Services interim committee on May 14 that federal Rural Health Transformation funds could be targeted to behavioral-health crisis services and to EMS/911 modernization that supports patient diversion and continuity of care.
Maryanne(e) Gibson of Inseparable highlighted 988 as a near-term priority. She said Wyoming's in-state 988 answer rate rose from 0% to 90% and that 2023 call volume exceeded 7,500; she recommended investing in stable 24/7 in-state operations, warmline capacity for lower-acuity callers, and alternatives to law-enforcement transport (citing Oklahoma's Ride Care model). Gibson suggested a potential investment on the order of $20'$30 million across the grant term to secure 988 and related crisis continuum enhancements.
Dr. Brent Myers of ESO proposed a vendor-agnostic data platform linking 911 dispatch through hospital outcomes. He said integrated data can prospectively identify low-acuity calls and repeat high utilizers and enable nurse triage, alternative transport, community paramedicine home visits, and hospital-at-home models. "We can appropriately provide care for patients that may not involve sending an ambulance and responding all of the time," he said, arguing that targeted diversion reduces costs and preserves scarce rural EMS resources for true emergencies.
Stakeholder questions and legislative concerns: legislators asked about legal liability, rural applicability and cost. Myers said risk is mitigated by evidence-based decision rules and by the trade-offs of preserving scarce ambulances for high-acuity events. He also said the system is geographically configurable so it can be tailored to Wyoming's sparse population and volunteer-responder models. Department staff emphasized the need for transparent procurement and vendor-agnostic reporting.
How proposals fit state priorities: presenters argued investments align with Wyoming's expressed public priorities (maintaining emergency access, stabilizing OB and emergency services, and strengthening behavioral-health response) and with the state's application focus on channeling funds to the smallest rural hospitals and EMS.
Next steps: stakeholders offered to provide more detailed cost proposals and suggested the department use stakeholder feedback to design requests for applications that prioritize measurable deliverables and rapid procurement timelines if CMS approves the state's alternative budget.
