Vail Health / Photo provided
Community behavioral medicine has changed significantly over the past few years. Another change may come next year.
The Eagle County Commissioner’s Board recently approved a set of regulations and licensing requirements for the safe transportation of patients with behavioral disorders. This system he put into effect on Sunday, January 1st, but it will take some time to create.
At this time, those at risk who are taken to their local emergency room for treatment may be sent to an inpatient facility for more extensive care. As there are no such facilities in the county, patients are transported by ambulance.
This is an expensive journey, taking the ambulance and its crew out of the county for at least half a day.
New regulations will allow other companies to be licensed to transport some patients. This could include private security companies or private transportation companies that have decided to go into business.
Licenses fall into two categories. A Class A license permits the use of patient restraints. A Class B license permits the transfer of unrestrained patients to inpatients, walk-in facilities, or similar facilities.
Licensed vehicles may or may not have a police car-like partition between the driver and passenger.
Other transportation
Heath Harmon, Director of Eagle County Public Health and Environment, said the new licensing system is an opportunity to make transit services more accessible to communities.
Harmon said Vail Health, Eagle County Emergency Medical Service (the local ambulance district), Eagle Valley Behavioral Health, Hope Center and the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office will have to work “hand in hand” to address the new regulations. I said there is.
Chris Lindley, chief population health officer at Vail Health, noted that the new licensing requirements “won’t have too much of an impact at first,” and that Eagle County Emergency Medical Services, for now, has a limited focus on safe transportation of patients. It added that it is the only provider that offers
Brandon Daruna, CEO of Eagle County Paramedic Services, wrote in an email that there are still many unanswered questions about the new requirements. However, he wrote, the district will work with Eagle County to “help expand transportation options.”
Daruna noted that patient transport could impact district staffing, but “but we designed the system with the potential impact in mind.”
Still, over the past three years, the COVID-19 pandemic and this fall’s surge in other respiratory illnesses have necessitated a lot of medical transportation out of the county, primarily to the Denver area, according to Harmon. “It puts a huge strain on ambulance districts,” he pointed out.
local help comes
It will take some time to get the new licensing system up and running.but new Behavioral Health Campus at Edwards.
Located on the southeast side of the Edwards Interstate 70 interchange, the facility will be Colorado’s first new community mental health center in nearly 30 years.
“We are building a whole continuum of[behavioral health]care, whether it is outpatient, inpatient, or group support,” said Lindley. The facility is expected to be completed by the end of 2024 or the first quarter of 2025.
Its facilities make it easier for patients to receive more care. It also makes life a little easier for the people transporting those patients.
“I am thrilled that a behavioral health facility is under construction,” Darna wrote. “Having a facility where patients can be treated in a community surrounded by family, friends and support groups can make a huge difference to patient and patient care. It’s even better if it takes a few minutes instead.”
