County pushes to adopt preventative, patient-centered Mobile Integrated Health program

When someone falls and can’t get back up, emergency service responders arrive to help. They take them to the hospital if they’re hurt and provide medical care.

Oftentimes, these responders return to the same addresses to help with the same issues over and over.

Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) could change that, and fill a gap in preventative care for Owen County residents.

MIH delivers care to patients’ homes or in a mobile environment and connects them with resources that fit their needs. It focuses on giving individualized, holistic care to improve quality of life.

Owen County EMS Director Cris Lunsford recently applied for a five-year grant through Indiana Rural Health that would bring the program to the county.

Instead of waiting for injuries to treat, it works to identify how to reduce calls ahead of time. For example, rather than helping someone prone to falls again and again, MIH employees may be referred to a patient and identify the problem areas in their homes.

Shelby VanDerMoere, Bloomington community emergency medical technician and MIH program manager, said the city’s MIH team goes through a home safety checklist and checks ways to prevent future injuries, such as by identifying hazards, areas that are not ergonomically safe or places where grab bars should be installed.

Or, maybe the problem is that someone fell because they become dizzy suddenly after standing up. A MIH responder might push them to get in contact with a doctor to address the root cause of their falls.

MIH includes telehealth platforms and in-person teams that can provide health screenings, vaccinations, treatments, follow-ups, social work, substance abuse resources, mental health resources and chronic disease management, among other services.

Both Bloomington’s MIH program and the still developing potential Owen County program include vehicles that will allow the MIH responder to meet patients where they’re at, whether it is their home, the street, a McDonald’s, doctor’s office or a park.

The Owen County grant, which would give $200,000 for the first year of the program, includes a paramedic position, their training, a vehicle outfitted with lights and graphics, a heart monitor and possibly a computer that can be used for telehealth medicine.

Lunsford said MIH, which will give free services, will largely focus on prenatal and postnatal care. This would include teaching safe sleeping habits, ensuring the mothers and infants are taken care of and helping them navigate the healthcare system. It will also include follow-up care for patients who recently left the hospital.

“We have people that maybe have problems accessing medications, navigating the health care system,” Lunsford said. “Some people use the ER as their primary care physician, and this will help educate those people and help them maybe get in to see a primary care physician, instead of calling the ambulance to do that.”

It helps find solutions and alleviate some calls from the EMS load, he said. The program could also develop to include smoking cessation and drug rehabilitation.

VanDerMoere, who lives in Owen County, said she thinks the area could also really benefit from MIH providing elderly and chronic disease management.

One time, Bloomington MIH was able to help someone who had been homebound for several years get a ramp installed in their home, giving them the ability to leave.

“Mobile Integrated Health is going to be able to provide an outlet for those people to get the help they need with allowing people to realize that the only option isn’t just going into a nursing home,” she said.

Additionally, VanDerMoere recommended that the county’s future MIH program work closely with the local school resource officers to identify families that might need “a little bit of extra help and make sure that they have the things that they need to be successful.”

“Our school resource officers are going to be able to easily identify those families,” VanDerMoere said. “And then if you could just kind of wrap some extra love around them, to help make sure that the kiddos are having some protective shields around them in the hopes to maybe prevent some issues later in life, that’s a huge deal.”

Bloomington first implemented its MIH program about 3.5 years ago and has fleshed it out to include different areas of expertise.

“What it looks like from the beginning, if you do Mobile Integrated Health correctly, and you don’t get so focused on what you think it should look like, then it should constantly be evolving to what the community needs,” VanDerMoere said. “What it might need right now does not mean three years from now, is what it still needs.”

To keep serving the community well, it’s important for the MIH paramedics to remember the “why” behind what they’re doing and keep in close relationships with the community and its partners, she said.

Lunsford said one way he aims to do this is by seeking out the county’s Amish and Mennonite communities to see if MIH could be helpful to them.

“Taking the time to build the relationships up front is my biggest advice,” VanDerMoere said. “Take the time to invest up front, and build the relationships, and it will pay great dividends in the end.”

The grant is still very early in the process, but Lunsford said he hopes to start slowly implementing the program in January 2027. In the meantime, he plans to meet with MIH leaders in different counties to learn more about preparing for and integrating the program.

“There’s still a lot I need to learn,” Lunsford said. “We’re just hoping to make a difference in people’s lives, help people access what they need, help them and help the county also.”