Clayton County Reduces 911 Calls and Enhances Community Health Through Innovative Program

The Challenge

Clayton County Fire & Emergency Services, located just south of Atlanta, serves a densely populated community of approximately 300,000 residents within 144 square miles. The department was facing some complex challenges, such as high 911 call volumes, addressing social determinants of health, and providing care in a region with limited healthcare resources and hospital closures.

In 2015, the potential closure of Clayton County’s only local hospital brought to light the urgent need for alternative healthcare solutions. Under the leadership of the previous Fire Chief, Landry Merkison, the department was tasked with developing a pre-hospital delivery model that would provide additional healthcare resources for the community.

The result was the launch of their Community Treatment Program (CTU) in 2016, a mobile integrated healthcare (MIH) initiative aimed at addressing low-acuity 911 calls and providing proactive, community-based care.

However, over time, the department realized the original program wasn’t effectively meeting its goals. They found that addressing patients’ chronic conditions and social needs required more time and resources than the traditional 911 system could provide. To tackle these issues, the department revamped the program. In 2022, they launched the 4C (Clayton County Community Cares) Program, which focuses on reducing repeat 911 usage and addressing root causes of health disparities.

The Solution

The Clayton County team turned to ImageTrend’s Community Health™ module and Continuum™ solutions to support their program’s transformation. By leveraging ImageTrend’s configurable, data-driven platform, the department was able to:

• Streamline Patient Management: The team restructured the Community Health module to create a centralized program for referred and enrolled patients. This approach allowed them to manage patients with multiple chronic conditions more effectively, without the need for separate programs for each condition.
• Clean and Consolidate Data: With ImageTrend’s Report Writer tool, the team identified 3,800 repeat patients accounting for 60% of their EMS call volume. They used this data to merge duplicate records and streamline reporting, enabling more accurate and efficient patient tracking.
• Leverage Continuum Dashboards: Using Continuum, the department created dashboards and heatmaps to track community health visits and visualize program impact by district. Custom playlists allowed internal and external stakeholders to see near real-time data on community health activities within their districts, fostering transparency and support for the program.
• Enhance Field Operations: The team integrated ImageTrend’s Repeat Patient functionality, a feature that’s part of Elite™, enabling crews to access comprehensive patient histories, including previous 12-lead results, glucose checks, and medication lists. This feature reduced reporting time for crews and improved decision-making in the field.
• Improve Referrals and Monitoring: Crews could now refer patients directly through ImageTrend’s platform, and the system automatically generated daily reports for the Community Health team. This allowed them to follow up with referred patients within 24 to 48 hours, providing timely interventions.