NBC 10 I-Team: Mobile unit aimed at reducing unnecessary ER visits

It's a costly and long-running problem for Providence: residents who call 911 for minor medical issues like a sore throat or injured toe, resulting in an unnecessary ride in one of the city's rescue trucks to the hospital.

"Our EMS, our rescue services, have been overwhelmed," said Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare.

The result is "the most expensive taxi ride in the city, that takes you to the emergency room, for the most expensive hospital stay," said Mayor Jorge Elorza.

The Providence Fire Department gets some 33,000 medical calls each year, Elorza said.

But about 14,000 of those are for what’s known as Basic Life Support or BLS — not true emergencies.

"We currently operate in a 911 system, an emergency medical system, that's broken, and it's not unique to Rhode Island," said Providence Fire Dept. EMS Chief Zach Kenyon.

As the NBC 10 I-Team has reported, a broken system can sometimes have deadly results.

Providence teacher Anne-Marie Dansicker died after she was hit by a car while crossing the street outside Mt. Pleasant High School in December 2015.

While Providence firefighters in a fire truck were on scene almost immediately to give treatment, Dansicker waited 18 minutes for an ambulance to arrive from Central Falls and transport her to the hospital. That's because all seven of Providence's rescue trucks were out on calls at the time.

It's unclear whether getting to the hospital sooner could have saved Dansicker's life, but one big change since her death is an SUV known as the Mobile Health Unit unveiled on Tuesday.

The vehicle is dedicated to low-level medical calls in order to free up rescue trucks for true emergencies.

The SUV travels to minor medical calls with two Providence firefighter EMTs on board.

It's equipped with many of the same supplies you'd find inside an ambulance, so patients can be treated at home. Or, if needed, they can be taken to the Providence Community Health Center for a clinic visit or doctor's appointment, often within a few minutes.

The Mobile Health Unit has been on the streets of Providence for the past eight weeks and has treated about 100 people so far.

The Fire Department says about 40 percent of those patients avoided a visit to the emergency department: 9 percent were treated at home while 31 percent were brought to the Providence Community Health Center's Express Clinic.

The remaining 60 percent were still transported to the hospital, but City leaders say the early numbers are encouraging.

"There has to be a better way, and we believe that this is it," Elorza said.