REMSA NEWS RELEASE
Washoe County residents now have a new innovative medical service at their fingertips with the launch of REMSA’s (Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority) Nurse Health Line. The Nurse Health Line, a seven-digit phone number, 858-1000, offers 24-hour-per-day, seven-day-per-week access to medical assessment, clinical education, triage and referral to health care and community services for all Washoe County residents and visitors, regardless of insurance status.
This new program provides patients with quicker access to medical information and more care choices from REMSA’s team of specially trained and experienced registered nurses. The Nurse Health Line is a part of REMSA’s Community Health Programs.
“The REMSA Nurse Health Line gives Washoe County residents a choice when medical issues arise and helps patients access the most appropriate and safest levels of quality care,” said Jim Gubbels, president and chief executive Officer of REMSA. “This is an innovative service that expands the health care options available to Washoe County citizens. If someone believes that emergency medical care is required, we urge them to call 9-1-1. The Nurse Health Line is not an alternative to 9-1-1, but is available for those medical situations that are not an emergency.”
REMSA’s Nurse Health Line services include:
- Assess: Nurses will assess each patient’s non-emergency illness or injury, including specific symptoms, medical history, medications, allergies and complicating conditions.
- Care: Nurses will provide personalized care guidance in real time and provide assistance in determining how soon to seek additional care.
- -Triage: Nurses will triage patients to the appropriate level of care and assist patients in identifying and arranging for appropriate treatment.
- Refer: Nurses will assist patients to help them gain access to an array of the available local community resources closest to their homes, such as urgent care centers, primary care doctors and medical clinics, mental health services, community service agencies and public assistance programs.
- Educate: Nurses will educate patients on medical concerns, proper medication usage, wellness strategies, injury prevention, and diagnosis/disease processes and improve their knowledge of how to effectively use local resources, which will help patients to manage their health care costs.
- Confirm: Nurses will use sophisticated protocols to confirm whether the patient has a serious medical problem requiring immediate care. Callers with such problems will be directly transferred to the emergency medical dispatchers, and the fire department first responders and an ambulance will be sent immediately.
The REMSA Nurse Health Line is located in the REMSA medical communications center. For non-English speaking patients, nurses will provide medical information via a language line service. Additional information can be found at nursehealthline.com.
About REMSA Community Health Programs
REMSA’s Community Health Programs offer new care and referral pathways which assure patients who have entered the 9-1-1 emergency medical services system with urgent and non-urgent low acuity medical conditions receive the safest, and most appropriate levels of quality care. In addition, post-discharge patients with conditions such as congestive heart failure will receive in-home follow-up care. In cooperation with the community’s health care partners, these programs will safely improve patient-centered care, improve patient satisfaction, and reduce ambulance transports, emergency department visits, hospital readmissions, and overall health care costs. REMSA’s Community Health Programs are funded by a Health Care Innovation Award.
Partners include HAWC Clinic, Nevada State Health Officer, Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services, Northern Nevada Medical Center, Reno Fire Department, Renown Regional Medical Center, Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center, the State of Nevada Office of Emergency Medical Services, Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District, the University of Nevada-Reno School of Community Health Sciences, the Washoe County Health District and WestCare Community Triage Center.
About REMSA
REMSA is a private, non-profit emergency medical services system serving northern Nevada. REMSA’s state-of-the-art medical dispatch communications center is fully accredited, as are all emergency medical transport services of the company. REMSA provides quality patient care with no local taxpayer support.
