Bringing mobile health care to rural Colorado with Rocky Mountain Health Plans

May 8, 2024

Video

Mobile, at-home rural health care

Video transcript

A white screen with blue and grey text appears on the screen. Music plays throughout.

ON SCREEN TEXT: REAL PARTNERSHIPS. REAL POSSIBILITIES.

ON SCREEN TEXT: United

Healthcare

ON SCREEN TEXT: Rocky Mountain

HEALTH PLANS®

A montage shows mountain views and a car driving through the mountains. Reuben Farnsworth interviews in a room.

REUBEN: Mobile integrated health is advanced health care in an out-of-hospital setting, meeting people where they're at, giving them the care they need in the place where they are.

ON SCREEN TEXT: REUBEN FARNSWORTH, FP-C, CP-C

Clinical Operations Coordinator

Delta County Ambulance District

A montage shows Reuben making a house call to an older couple.

REUBEN: In ways, it's an evolution. In ways, it's a revisiting an old way of doing things. Back in the days, a physician would make house calls. We obviously don't have the physicians to make house calls now, but we can do it with paramedics. 2.2, Jay.

JAY: Where did that come from?

REUBEN: I love these numbers. We're changing the paradigm of how people access the health care system.

A montage shows a woman, Natalie, in her house then she is interviewed in a room. White text appears on the bottom right of the screen.

ON SCREEN TEXT: NATALIE

Patient, DCAD Mobile Integrated Healthcare

NATALIE: When I got discharged from the hospital after having my meningitis, they told me about the mobile integrated health program. The third day after being home, I woke up that morning and my headache was a lot worse. And then I noticed that the tightness in my neck was getting worse. And when I would stand up, my heart would race. I felt like it was going to beat out of my chest.

David Jepsen interviews in a chair in a house. A montage changes between Natale and David White text appears on the lower left of screen.

ON SCREEN TEXT: DAVID JEPSEN, FP-C, CP-C

DCAD Mobile Integrated Healthcare

DAVID: We were seeing Natalie as part of a discharge plan to help provide continued monitoring for a few days before she was able to get in to see her primary care physician.

NATALIE: And he hooked me up to all the monitors, and he said that he just felt like something was still going on.

DAVID: I felt that it was quite important to get her in and seen urgently in the emergency room that evening.

NATALIE: So once I got back to the hospital, they ran some more tests. I had another MRI and a CAT scan on my head and a bunch of blood work. And then at that time, they decided I needed to be airlifted over to Colorado Springs. If he hadn't told me to go back, I probably wouldn't have gone back until somebody made me at some point, which could have been a lot worse. I mean, obviously, I don't know if I would have died or not. But personally, I feel like if I hadn't have got treatment, my life would be a lot different.

DAVID: It's quite interesting to momentarily step into someone's life and have an effect on the trajectory of where their life will go after that day.

NATALIE: They saved the life that I have.

A montage shows an EMT station from an aerial view, then from inside the station of equipment, people at a conference table. White text appears in the lower left of the screen. Reuben is being interviewed.

ON SCREEN TEXT: DELTA COUNTY AMBULANCE DISTRICT

REUBEN: I started the program here in Delta, but I didn't start the idea. The chief and I had talked about it repeatedly, that we both felt like this mobile integrated health care concept was really kind of the future of emergency medical services. And we felt like it was something that was a really good fit for the rural area here. We have our partners like Rocky Mountain Health Plans and UnitedHealthcare. They, early on, said, we see the value in this. And this is good for patients. It's good for the system. We'd be crazy not to support this. Go out and do good things and make the world a better place. And luckily, I have a really amazing team here. They go out every day in the world, and they make the world a better place. That's what they do. Their answer is always yes. The answer is always yes.

The screen dissolves to white with grey text on screen.

ON SCREEN TEXT: Investments from Rocky Mountain Health Plans' Prime Medicaid Program

fully fund the utilization of Mobile Integrated Healthcare in Delta County

The text dissolves into three lines that swirl and creates a U. Blue text appears on the screen. The music fades.

ON SCREEN TEXT: United

Healthcare

There for what matters^TM

uhc.com

Following a two-week stay at the hospital for meningitis, Natalie was discharged to go back home. Everything was fine until about three days later. She lived in Delta, Colorado on the Western Slope, and was about a four-and-a-half-hour drive to Denver.

Before she left the hospital, staff told Natalie about the Delta County Ambulance District’s Mobile Integrated Health program (DCAD-MIH) so she requested they check in on her as she recovered from home. It wasn’t long before they found an issue that could’ve threatened her life.

Natalie was having a racing heart and a tightness in her neck. Dave Jepsen, the MIH paramedic who attended to her, noticed Natalie’s skin had a gray tint, and after some tests, Dave realized that treatment couldn’t wait. She was sent to the emergency room and soon after, was airlifted to Colorado Springs.

“If he hadn’t have told me to go back (to the hospital), I probably wouldn’t have gone back until someone made me at some point, which could’ve been a lot worse,” Natalie said. “Personally, I feel like if I hadn’t gotten treatment, my life would be a lot different.”

Coming into people’s homes and providing this kind of care is new – but also a call back to how things used to be.

“Back in the day, physicians made house calls,” said Reuben Farnsworth, clinical operations coordinator for Delta County Ambulance District. “We obviously don’t have physicians to make house calls now, but we do have paramedics. We’re changing the paradigm of how people access the health care system.”

DCAD-MIH, and the mobile integrated health care concept, helps to fill a much-needed gap in a rural area, with support from UnitedHealthcare and Rocky Mountain Health Plans.

In areas of Colorado, a lack of primary care physicians means that people were more likely to face long waits at crowded emergency rooms or opt for a costly ambulance ride to the hospital for relatively minor ailments.

Instead, mobile integrated health care meets people where they are. Reuben and his team found that treating people in their homes can be quicker, more effective and affordable, plus help take some of the pressure off the health care system. The MIH clinicians can also provide an important link to other physicians for a continuum of care.

The support from UnitedHealthcare and Rocky Mountain Health Plans has been instrumental in scaling up this model in the region.

“We couldn’t have grown as fast as we have without the investment from Rocky Mountain Health Plans and UnitedHealthcare,” Reuben said. “Their vision and willingness to jump on board with us in this and say, ‘Yes, we think this is the future,’ and their willingness to embrace innovation is what has helped us to thrive and move forward.”

More articles

More articles

Sign up to get the latest news from the UnitedHealthcare Newsroom