The Covington Fire Department is looking for ways to revive its Community Paramedicine Program, which for six months last year sent paramedics into people’s homes for routine care to avoid emergency room visits.
In collaboration with St. Elizabeth Physicians, the fire department said the effort cut hospital and emergency visits by 57% and reduced 911 calls from patients in the program by 73%.
From April 2025 to October 2025, the program served 89 patients with 352 home visits. They also provided transportation to routine care appointments and aided in overall health education awareness. The patients benefited from access to affordable prescriptions and were encouraged to build habits to care for any chronic health conditions.
“It’s a gap in health care that we never [really] knew about until the last couple of years,” Assistant Chief Gary Rucker said. “Especially this pilot program proved to me that there are people in our community that definitely need this help.”
Grant funding for the program ran out last year; now, the fire department is exploring additional private grants for future funding. Rucker said they are also looking for ways to potentially be included in the city budget. Plus, he said there may be a third option: insurance companies.
There currently are no reimbursement options from insurance companies regarding this type of community care, but Rucker said there’s a nationwide push to change that.
“It saves the insurance companies money in the long run because an ER visit is way more expensive than us just coming out,” Rucker said.
If the program is funded, the fire department also is exploring ways to expand care to different types of patients in the community.
Rucker said the department felt the requirements of the pilot program were not inclusive enough. They are hopeful a future grant could give them more flexibility to include more community members in need, such as people struggling with homelessness and mental health.
“I'm hoping when we start back up and expand that we can really get into a lot of the mental health side,” Rucker said. “And working with NorthKey [Community Care] and those partners to include a lot more people into this program and not just the small group we have for this pilot program.”
Rucker is hopeful that the success of the pilot carries them to new funding opportunities so they can revitalize the Community Paramedicine Program once more.
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