REMSA Health Partnerships Address Access to Health Care for Rural Communities

It's National Rural Health Day, a day to showcase the efforts of rural healthcare providers. In Northern Nevada and Northern California, Washoe County-based REMSA Health serves small communities all over the region.

"Care Flight actually operates out of two different states," said Matt Brown, Director of Rural EMS for REMSA Health. "We have four helicopter bases, two in California and two in Nevada, we well as the rural EMS program in Plumas County, California."

REMSA Health took over ambulance services for Plumas District Hospital in Quincy, California five years ago. The 16-bed critical access hospital serves about 7,000 people in Northeastern California, and the pandemic has put even more of a strain on resources there.

"We've been busy, especially in the last 18 months," said Plumas District Hospital COO Darren Beatty. "We keep a lot of patients here in our inpatient beds, but we do have to transfer out a lot, and that's where Care Flight comes in handy with air and ground transport, and resources they have to get our patients to Reno, Chico or Sacramento for higher-level care."

The ambulances in Quincy respond to more than half of Plumas County, and covering that kind of ground is another challenge for these rural crews.

"It's a very different environment than working in a city," Brown said. "You can go an hour, and hour and a half one way, just to get to your patient. And they can be up in a canyon or down in a creek bottom. So we do all kinds of rescues, including over-the-edge rescues where we have to rappel down. You never know what you'll have to do, it's a very autonomous environment."

The collaboration has helped with staffing shortages, and out here, these first responders go the extra mile.

"We provide a lot of in-home care," Brown said. "Our paramedics and EMTs act as an extension of the hospital, so physicians don't have to go to houses and patients don't have to go to the hospital. We provide that intermediate care level."

Quincy was the first rural town in California to be designated a HeartSafe Community, those are communities with a commitment to heart health and access to lifesaving care.