Goshen City hears update on mobile integrated health program; coordinator cites 30% cost savings

Goshen City officials heard a progress report March 13 on the city’s Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) program, which the city says redirects certain 911 responses to medical and social services aimed at reducing repeat emergency calls.

Andrew Green, the city’s MIH coordinator, told the council that MIH focuses on ‘‘the root causes’’ behind repeated 911 calls — including mental health, substance use and housing instability — and that ‘‘it’s basically 911 used in a smarter way.’’ Green said the fire department answered about 6,000 calls last year and that roughly one in six of those calls met the program’s criteria for MIH intervention.

‘‘We’re seeing about a 30% cost savings when incidents are handled by mobile integrated health rather than traditional 911,’’ Green said, adding the savings grow when ambulances and emergency-department visits are avoided. He also shared hospital data identifying 12 Goshen-addressed patients who accounted for 46 ER visits and 26 ambulance transports over 30 days, calling them ‘‘super utilizers’’ whose cases the program aims to prevent through proactive outreach.

Green traced the program’s origin to a behavioral health response officer in law enforcement and said he was added to the team a year ago to bring a paramedic perspective. Current coverage includes an additional paramedic doing overtime—about 20 hours a week—to provide follow-up services; Green said that arrangement is unsustainable and that the city’s ‘‘fully staffed’’ model would include a MIH coordinator, two paramedics, two behavioral-health (NIH) officers and a facility therapy dog.

Green described paramedics’ roles as medical expertise, crisis stabilization and healthcare navigation, with law enforcement providing safety and legal authority when necessary. He said police data are still being integrated and that once those records are included the share of calls meeting MIH criteria may rise.

The report was presented during a special information session; the council approved the meeting agenda at the start of the session by motion, which passed unanimously (vote counts were not specified in the transcript). No formal council action on staffing or budget for MIH was recorded during this session. Green encouraged follow-up questions to staff and the council indicated interest in further data and potential staffing changes to reduce overtime and expand outreach.