An Overview of DispatchHealth with Karrie Austin

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following is a podcast from a qualified senior care provider part on the answers for elders radio show. And Welcome back everyone to answers for elders radio. And we are here with a brand new guest with a wonderful, brand new service to greater puget sound, a lady by the name of Carrie Austin and carry your with dispatched health, and I’m so excited to talk to you because this is huge, huge, huge for the northwest. Thanks for being here, thank you for having me. Appreciate it. You know, this month our theme is culture, connections and celebrations and it’s all really about coming together. How do we make life easier, especially getting ready for the holiday season? And you guys, it’s all about connection. I am so thrilled to have dispatched help be a part of our program because, Carrie, you are the kind of individual, obviously, that has been in the industry a long time. Tell us a little bit about dispatch health. So dispatch health has partner with multiicare here in the Pacific northwest to really increase accessibility to healthcare, Uh Huh, for the senior patient population. Our whole goal is to not only to basically right size healthcare so we have the right product for the right patient in the right setting, which is the home right so bringing back that house call, if you will, and then for the right cost. Our whole goal is to really drive down the cost of healthcare when we’re seeing, you know, every year, you know, year in and year out, we’re seeing an increase in health care cost for our seniors and really here to just kind of drive those costs down and make it more accessible and a better experience overall for for our patients well. And you know what you’re saying is so important because you’re you said so many things that are like buzz words to me. Number one being in their own home. I mean there’s that’s the safe environment for a senior to go to a clinic to have to deal with. A lot of time seniors have mobility issues, especially in the winter time when it’s icee out or things like that. They don’t necessarily they can’t necessarily get in as often as they probably should. Correct and having the ability to have somebody to come to them is huge, and that’s your service. You guys don’t even have a physical office, do you learn people, you guys come to the senior. So obviously, you know, first thing I go to is the adult daughter or son who takes mom and dad to a doctor. How many of us? How many days off of work did I have to take to take care of my parent? Oh my gosh, I remember when I was taking care of my mother carry I had, you know, I’d have to take a half day off and of course that’s just how hard. It’s. So hard for families. You guys really don’t. I mean that’s an amazing part of your service. It is we’re able to really bridge the gap for our patients so that they, patients do better when they’re the comfort and the safety of their own home. You have better outcomes and so really being able to mobilize, if you will, healthcare and kind of, if you will, go back to, you know, that house call again where the physician or, you know, the PA, your nurse Practitioner in the whole team can come to sure in the comfort of your home, versus, you know, sitting sometimes for hours in an ear or urgent care waiting room and honestly, that’s just not the best experience for anyone. So absolutely rely want to focus on making sure that we’re bringing healthcare to the right people right and obviously bringing healthcare to people. It’s obviously there’s you know, it’s a convenient thing where a senior all they have to do is just pick up the phone, corrected, there’s or call you and then somebody comes and they don’t have to worry about you know, obviously, how am I going to get there? Do I have to get dressed? Do I have to especially when I don’t feel good? That’s so important and I’m so glad that you guys are here. Now tell us a little bit about carry about your services. What kind of services do you actually offer? Are you? Do you function like a primary care doctor primarily or no, no, we really are more of that mobile urgent care arch type service. Okay, so we send out out it advanced practitioner so and there’s a nurse practitioner or a PA and then an EMT train tech and then they always have direct access to a board certified eaty physician. So what that gives us is that an extra layer of protection for the patient. So when we’re out seeing someone, if we need to contact the doctor and have them talk with the patient as well, fantastic for them. They’re really getting the overall experience, but we bring with us, in the way that we’re successful as we travel, with a CLEA certified lab, so we can do lab work right then and they’re at the bedside with the patient and we get the results within ten minutes versus having to wait for maybe an hour to like you would in any are interesting. Yeah, and then, based on the chief complaint or the reason that we’re there in the home to see the patient, we also carry a pharmacy with us, so we have both ivy and bibouth medication, so we can start the first dose that right. So cool. So right then and there in the home, knowing that when you don’t feel good, the last thing sometimes you want to do is drive to a drug store, to a pharmacy and wait for your prescription. So we will partner with mobile mobile pharmacies as well to sometimes, if we can, have the patients prescriptions brought back to them so they don’t even have to leave the home or have like a family member after work way to hearing them back. Yeah, so we really, we really just we took the ear and we put it in a car, if you will, and we bring it out to the passion. Amazing and of course I’ve seen one of your card cars on the road. Before that I had no idea how amazing you are. Now tell me a little bit about what areas that you’re in. Not you start? You came about a year ago, didn’t you, to the this area. I know despatch health has been around for a long time in the US. Correct. Yes, we conceptionally two thousand and thirteen and then we operationalize. In other words, are the very first team on the road, as dispatch health was two thousand and fifteen in Denver. So we are now cross the entire United States and seventeen markets and saying hopefully eighteen by the end of the year, and six of which you are here in the Pacific northwest. So we started into coma December two thousand and eighteen. So we’re about ten, almost eleven months now, into that market. And then we just recently opened up Olympia August first, spoken August fourteen, North Seattle on August twenty one, and then Portland and Boise just shortly thereafter. Wow, wow, so again everyone we are talking to carry, Austin and carry. You are the regional market managers. That kind of your title or how you how you handle. So you basically the outreach person and and I’m so excited to to get to know you, because you guys have really come into a community that needs you so badly. I know you know with the traffic here and greater puget sound with all different types of challenge, just that we haven’t you know, transportation, which is such a big deal. This is so cool, and you know when you’re functioning like an er type of thing. Obviously there’s a lot of seniors that have a primary care doctor. Now, do you work in tandem with that? I mean will you provide the records, obviously to their primary care doctor? They don’t have to change doctors or anything like. knows. Absolutely, we actually encourage them to stay on with their pcps. We’re more of an acute on demand service to help got at gap, when got it, get into their PCP and every time we see a patient we always send the clinical notes by secured facts back to the primary care physician her so they know who we saw, what we saw them for and what the plan of care was. Oh, that’s amazing, that’s amazing. So tell us about again. I know that you are in Tacoma and you’re in north Seattle. What other locations again, are you Olympia? Olympia, spokane, in Portland and Boise? That’s awesome. And then the north Seattle area. You include Snow Mush County with that? Is that correct? Do we extend essentially from downtown Seattle all the way up through Everett and Marysville? That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So obviously the flu seasons coming up. Oh yes, oh, it’s here, it’s here. So you know, obviously we want to make sure number one, just this is a side note. Please get a flu shot everyone. And I’ve also been hearing a matter of fact, I was in my pharmacy yesterday picking up prescription in my pharmacist said to me. You know, Suzanne, you’re sixty three years old. You need to get US shingles vaccine. Yes, and so you know obviously that is a big concern with older adults as well. I’m assuming. Is that correct? Correct? Okay, so when you’re when we’re talking about flu, I mean obviously number one is get the flu vaccine and and that’s something important for everybody to do. But I think the other thing is is that flu season is upon us and you know there’s some things that we could definitely do to to prevent getting the flu and I would just love in the few seconds that we have left. You know, what can we do is, you know, to help keep ourselves safe from the flu besides the vaccine. Yeah, so, like you just stated, the vaccine is number one in preventative in preventive care, but really just hand hygiene, washing your hands, you know, anytime you come in contact with anything really lots of fluids. Keeping yourself healthy, you know, bundling up when you go outside, making sure that you know, you’re eating healthy, you’re getting enough sleep, but really just taking care of yourself. That’s that’s primarily outside of that vaccine. That’s the best thing that you can do for yourself. And I think with seniors, if if you have a loved one that is at home and they may have a few little mobility issues, I will I am the will venture to guess that your loved one is not eating properly and they are not necessarily drinking enough water. Those are things that you can encourage and help by helping with proper nutrition. You know, it’s great. I know so many this is a season for Nice, healthy, you know, pots of soup, and seniors love wonderful homemade soup. So you know, things like that that you can do for your loved one to keep them safe and have them to have the ability to have that kind of fluid intake. So you know, that’s something. But the hand washing is a huge thing, you know, I’m I’m assuming, you know, with seniors especially, you know, they’re not necessarily as conscious about washing their hands just because it’s an extra thing to do. Right, they want to get back to that comfortable chair and watch, you know, watch their favorite show or whatever that is. It’s it’s so so anyway. So again let’s talk about you know, everyone dispatch help is in our area and Carrie, I am so glad you’re here and I’m looking forward to having you back next month as well, as we talk about twelve days of goodness. But in the meantime, I’m how do we reach you and how does seniors get to you? Yes, so easy as form is. Just call us and here in the Seattle area the phone number is four to five, five, five three zero nine three seven. Uh Huh. If you’re in an am the other any of the other areas, you certainly can call that number and they’ll get you to the Tacoma office or Olympia or spokane, but really calling is the easiest. You can go to dispatch healthcom online and then you can also find us. We have an APP on either apple or Android, but yeah, either a. If you find dispatch health, you’ll or look up dispetchalth you’ll be able to get ahold of us. Well. I’m thrilled to have you on and thank you so much for being a part of our show. And I you know this is really important. Everyone stay safe, take care of yourself and get your vaccines correct. Thanks Terry. Thanks by answers for elders radio show with Susan Newman. Hopes you found this podcast useful in your journey of navigating senior care. Check out more podcast like this to help you find qualified senior care experts and areas of financial, legal, health and wellness and the living options. Learn about our radio show, receive our monthly newsletter, receive promotional discounts and meet our experts by clicking on the banner to join the Senior Advocate Network at answers for elders RADIOCOM. Now there is one place to find the answers for elders