EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Going to the hospital for non-emergencies these days can be nerve-wracking as El Paso hospitals are filled with COVID-19 patients. During this pandemic, El Paso Advanced Practice Provider is bringing medical care to you.
“Patients will call 911, and it’s not a true emergency,” said Taron Peebles, the creator of Advanced Practice Provider.
Taron Peeples created Advanced Practice Provider after working as an EMT for years and seeing the need for at-home care. Telling KTSM 9 News as an EMT, he would pick up the same patient two to three times.
“So that’s what really bore the concept out — a way to bridge the fragmentation of health care but also reduce hospital 30-day readmission while reducing hospital 30-day readmissions while reducing non-urgent non-emergency 911 transports,” said Peebles.
If you request care, the mobile unit will come to your home along with a nurse practitioner and a registered nurse.
“We’re going to do evaluations and physical examination. We can draw blood work, we’ll send it off to the labs, and we can do pretty much a home visit that you would normally have at the doctor. Now for more advanced stuff like radiology, we can give orders and give you recommendations for those things and then follow up with you at home,” said Kenneth Berumen, the Medical Director of Advanced Practice Provider.
The process allows patients to avoid going to the hospital for non-emergencies.
“Rather than running the risk of you coming out to other places where there could be a lot more people that could be infected,” said Berumen.
Peebles tells KTSM 9 News that mobile health care is available to everyone in El Paso.
“We accept self-pay and the uninsured. Our goal is to again make health care accessible to all. Now, we do take private insurance, and we do take medical and Medicaid. But ultimately, the goal is to provide accessible health care to every individual,” said Peebles.
