SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. – Starting Wednesday, when you call 911 in parts of Santa Clara County, your phone call can be referred to what officials call “assistant navigators.”

If you call 911 and don’t need an immediate in-person response, a dispatcher can direct your call to a medical professional “trained to triage callers to the correct services.”

The The Nurse Navigator program is a partnership with Global Medical Response (GMR), a Colorado emergency response company that already provides ambulance service to the county through its transportation company, AMR.

Santa Clara County officials say the new protocol won’t slow emergency response times, but will help connect callers with other resources.

“We certainly want to reassure the public that this in no way impedes the provision of life-saving aid to those in need,” said Dr. Kenneth Miller, medical director of the County’s Emergency Medical Services Agency.

According to Santa Clara County, callers do not need health insurance and will not be charged to receive assistance.

The pilot program is underway starting Wednesday in the following South Bay cities: Gilroy, Morgan Hill, San Martin, Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, Campbell, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Saratoga.

“If someone’s calling because they’re not feeling well, they’re sick, they’ve got a cold, those types of responses will most likely go down the navigation nurse route, where they can get specific help from a licensed nurse to meet their needs. ,” said Trisha Adcock, director of the Santa Clara County 911 Communications Center.

“Instead of just providing one tool, which is a response and transport to the hospital, we’re adding another set of tools for how we can treat the community, so they’re giving us more services instead of taking services,” Nick Clay, Santa Claus. Clara County EMS Director said.

These 911 dispatchers triage incoming calls, and lower-level medical calls are sent to partner company GMR, which has 30 similar programs nationwide. Callers would be transferred directly to urgent care, a medical clinic or a telehealth doctor.

“We have a national call center and that’s where the nurse staff are. So the other nurse navigation programs in the country use the same center. The nurses used in this program are registered nurses in California,” said Darryl McClanahan, Regional Director for Global Medical. Response.

McClanahan says GMR will cover all costs of the pilot program and there will be no cost to 911 callers or the county.

Santa Clara County says it hopes the program will free up resources for the most urgent calls.

“You’re going to end up with somebody who needs a prescription, and that means the person who’s having a heart attack might not get care because of lower-acuity calls,” said Nick Clay, EMS director for Santa Clara County.

Some residents said they like the idea, but also have concerns.

“So the 911 people are going to have training to determine whether or not to get an ambulance?” asked Campbell resident Gie Hubilla.

“They ask so many questions and you’re dying and you’re trying to answer the questions, so they have to come up with good questions so it doesn’t take 10 minutes to get to an ambulance,” said Donna Ferrando . Campbell said. .

“A lot of people speak different languages, so here we are from the Philippines,” said Campbell’s Rodel Hubilla.

“It all depends on the costs, how the taxes are affected, but it looks like it would be cheaper in the long run,” said Campbell’s Stan Skarbeck.

Adcock says the 81 dispatchers received 30 days of training in the proprietary medical triage system created by GMR. Call center dispatchers and navigation assistants also have access to translation services.

The pilot program is scheduled to last three to six months. Clay says the county plans to evaluate the data and may expand the program countywide. GMR would not say how much the service might cost after the pilot program if expanded to the entire county.

The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District is considering a similar service with GMR, which could cost up to $600,000 for the nurse navigator program.