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Committee votes to send letter supporting community paramedicine expansion
Summary
The committee voted unanimously to submit a letter of support for a rural health transformation planning grant to expand the City of Wausau/Aspirus community paramedicine program, after hearing testimony on prevention benefits, reduced 911/ED usage and the program's referral volume.
The committee voted to submit a letter of support for expansion of a community paramedicine program seeking a Rural Health Transformation planning grant. Administrator Leonard described the request and the draft letter in the packet; Tara Drager, assistant director of community health at Aspirus, and City of Wausau Chief Jeremy Kopp presented program details.
Kopp described the community paramedic's preventive work — home visits for medication reviews, fall‑risk mitigation, linkage to primary care and transportation coordination — and said the program reduces 911 calls and emergency department visits by directing patients to appropriate community resources. He praised a dedicated communicator paramedic (identified in the presentation as 'Matt' in the transcript) and gave referral counts: 63 referrals from fire calls or hospitals and 85 total including shelter referrals since inception. "It's about prevention," Kopp said, and credited partnerships with Marathon County and Aspirus for program success.
A supervisor moved to "enthusiastically" submit a letter of support and a second was recorded; the committee voted and the motion carried. Leonard said the letter would be sent with the committee's endorsement to support the grant application and to explore expanding the program countywide.
