The Largest Nurse Navigation System in the Country Celebrates Five Years in Washington, D.C.
4.19.2023
Implemented in 2018, the Right Care, Right Now nurse triage line remains the largest such program in the country.
On April 19, 2018, the Washington D.C. Fire and EMS Department, with Global Medical Response, launched the Right Care, Right Now nurse triage line, an innovative healthcare solution. The program provides options for quickly reaching the appropriate level of medical care when calling 911.
For the past five years, the GMR Nurse Navigation system has provided on-site and remote triage nurses to handle the expansion to 24-hours, seven-days-a-week operations for the Washington, D.C. community. Over those years, the Right Care, Right Now program has triaged 62,000 of these low acuity 911 calls and diverted 25,000 (40 percent) of these callers to primary and urgent cares sites, self-care, mobile urgent care, or telehealth. In the calendar year 2022, 43 percent of all the calls were diverted.
The Right Care, Right Now nurse triage line remains the largest such program in the country.
Right Care, Right Now was implemented with the strong backing of Mayor Muriel Bowser, the City Council, DC Health, OUC, the Department of Health Care Finance, the Federally Qualified Health Centers (Unity Health Care, Community of Hope and Mary’s Center), the GWU MFA Immediate and Primary Care clinics and the Medicaid Managed Care Organizations.
Through Right Care, Right Now, there were no changes in the 911 system for life-threatening emergencies. Calls made to 911 for urgent, life-threatening, or potentially life-threatening emergencies result in the dispatching of emergency medical personnel to assess symptoms and provide transport to a local hospital.
If a condition is determined as a non- medical emergency, callers are transferred to a nurse to determine an appropriate path for treatment and assist in coordinating care. This program gets community members to the right level of care for their needs. There is no cost to the caller to access the Nurse Navigation system.
Right Care, Right Now nurses are licensed and have professional experience in emergency nursing. They are also specially trained in the practice of telephone triage. After triaging the caller, the nurses can connect callers to clinics, arrange transportation to and from appointments and notify a clinic when a patient is arriving. Nurse Navigators can also connect callers directly to telehealth physicians who can provide care and prescribe medication if necessary. The service does not require the caller to have medical insurance to access this service.
Read this Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for additional information or call 202.673.3320
For the past five years, the GMR Nurse Navigation system has provided on-site and remote triage nurses to handle the expansion to 24-hours, seven-days-a-week operations for the Washington, D.C. community. Over those years, the Right Care, Right Now program has triaged 62,000 of these low acuity 911 calls and diverted 25,000 (40 percent) of these callers to primary and urgent cares sites, self-care, mobile urgent care, or telehealth. In the calendar year 2022, 43 percent of all the calls were diverted.
The Right Care, Right Now nurse triage line remains the largest such program in the country.
Right Care, Right Now was implemented with the strong backing of Mayor Muriel Bowser, the City Council, DC Health, OUC, the Department of Health Care Finance, the Federally Qualified Health Centers (Unity Health Care, Community of Hope and Mary’s Center), the GWU MFA Immediate and Primary Care clinics and the Medicaid Managed Care Organizations.
Through Right Care, Right Now, there were no changes in the 911 system for life-threatening emergencies. Calls made to 911 for urgent, life-threatening, or potentially life-threatening emergencies result in the dispatching of emergency medical personnel to assess symptoms and provide transport to a local hospital.
If a condition is determined as a non- medical emergency, callers are transferred to a nurse to determine an appropriate path for treatment and assist in coordinating care. This program gets community members to the right level of care for their needs. There is no cost to the caller to access the Nurse Navigation system.
Right Care, Right Now nurses are licensed and have professional experience in emergency nursing. They are also specially trained in the practice of telephone triage. After triaging the caller, the nurses can connect callers to clinics, arrange transportation to and from appointments and notify a clinic when a patient is arriving. Nurse Navigators can also connect callers directly to telehealth physicians who can provide care and prescribe medication if necessary. The service does not require the caller to have medical insurance to access this service.
Read this Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for additional information or call 202.673.3320
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