Responder Care™ | Bringing Responders Help
Emergency Medical Services
Responder Care™ provides Emergency Medical Services (EMS) & Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) - Community Paramedicine (CP) for First Responders and their families.
What is EMS?
Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is a system that responds to emergencies in need of highly skilled pre-hospital clinicians. EMS also plays a role in non-emergent medical care. Community Paramedicine (CP), also known as Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH), is a patient-centered healthcare model in which EMS clinicians provide care outside the emergency response system. -source: ems.gov
What is MIH-CP?
Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) - Community Paramedicine (CP)
Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) is a coordinated, patient-centered, evidence-based, holistic model of care using collaborative, interdisciplinary teams to serve patient needs at the most appropriate level of care at a safe location of their convenience.
Community Paramedicine (CP) is a segment of Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) that is a provider-led, patient-centered delivery care model using appropriately trained Emergency Medical Services (EMS) clinicians in an expanded role to render care, facilitate a more efficient delivery of care, and enhance access to community resources that address the social determinants of health.
-source: National Association of Mobile Integrated Healthcare Providers (NAMIHP)
Physician Extension
Physician extension occurs when a licensed physician authorizes a non-physician to act as a “physician extender” to provide medical care to patients directly under the physician's medical license. In traditional practices the physician extender is a nurse practitioner (NP) or physician assistant (PA) operating under a collaborative practice agreement with the physician.
In emergency medical services (EMS), certified and registered EMS providers, as defined by the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT), deliver medical care as a physician extender while operating under the direction of a physician, standing orders/protocols, or operational medical direction (OMD).
In emerging private practices, hospitals, or concierge-like mobile medical care services, the physician extender can include registered nurses and EMS providers with expanded training and authorization to provide a variety of medical services within their scope of practice and as a medical assistant to a physician or advanced practitioner under the same medical direction as EMS agencies and practices.
Responder Care™ | EMS
History & Formation
Alexandria Fire Department Deputy Chief Brian R. Hricik was diagnosed with cancer in November 2022. Despite the Hricik Family having comprehensive health insurance, workers compensation, and all the traditional services available to Responders, gaps in medical coverage were quickly identified. In early December, amid family, friends, colleagues rallying around Brian to show their support, two ideas emerged:
- What if we could offer the Hricik family private Emergency Medical Services (EMS) & Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) - Community Paramedicine (CP), for free?
- What if we could do this for all Responders and their family members, when in need?
Refusing to waste precious time, the decision was made to jump on the first idea and to extend to Brian and family medical support not traditionally available. From December 2022 until March 2023, a team of paramedics were organized under a private EMS infrastructure to provide EMS & MIH-CP, preventing numerous trips to the Emergency Department.
In March 2023, with the support of the Hricik family, friends, and EMS colleagues, Responder Care™ officially launched as an EMERGILITY™ Special Program with Fiscal Sponsorship provided by Global Impact, a 501(c)(3). Established in honor and loving memory of Deputy Chief Brian R. Hricik (B.R.H.), the aim of the program is “Bringing Responders Help.”
The idea behind Responder Care™ was/is relatively simple. EMS MIH-CP services would be delivered by a professional EMS cadre (career & volunteer), with medical operations falling under an existing private EMS Agency infrastructure. These services would neither supplant nor compete with existing public emergency 9-1-1 services or private medical resources but would rather provide enhanced and alternative access to care not otherwise available. In the case of Deputy Chief Hricik, this was exactly what was accomplished. The goal moving forward is doing the same for others, in honor of Brian.
EMS Providers & Agency Affiliation
Responder Care™ provides private EMS & MIH-CP services utilizing physicians, physician extenders (advanced practitioners, nurses, and EMS providers), mixed medical professionals, and non-medical personnel. The level and type of provider present at the time of service is based on client need and resource availability.
EMS provider affiliation, training, and authorization is required for responders to provide medical care under the EMERGILITY™ EMS Agency (VA50537), as permitted by licensure and law.
Member Organization | NoVA EMS Council
The Northern Virginia (NoVA) EMS Council is one of the eleven regional EMS councils serving the Commonwealth of Virginia