Emerging Trends in Public Health
Sharing Session - 30 Minutes
Claudia Lozano, MPH, CHES
Program Manager
City of El Paso Dept. of Public Health
Gustavo Tavarez, Fire Medical
Battalion Chief
City of El Paso Fire Department
Ivonne Marquez, BS, CHES
Health Project Coordinator
City of El Paso Department of Public Health
The City of El Paso Department of Public Health, through the El Paso Fire Department, aims to improve Medicaid and uninsured access to health education, health promotion, and disease prevention services by using Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel as providers of screening/vaccination services by retrofitting neighborhood fire stations as service venues. The main objective is to serve 1,000 participants annually by providing one or more select health screenings including blood pressure check, glucose testing, pneumonia and/or flu vaccine, and fecal occult blood test. Since 2014, results have exceeded expectations by serving more than 1,000 participants per year who received select health screenings. A total of 4,661 participants have been served during 125 scheduled events at fire stations conducted by EMS personnel. About 3,000 participants were immunized against influenza and 500 with pneumonia vaccine. The Neighborhood Fire Station clinics capitalize on the availability of fire department/EMS as a neighborhood resource to promote community health through trusted, uniformed representatives of the healthcare system. With collective efforts and support from the community there are further opportunities to positively effect change in the affected population on a meaningful scale.