11-30-2021 11:54am

HVA Paramedics Providing In-Home Monoclonal Antibody Treatment to COVID-19 Patients, Saving Hospital Space

(Press release from Huron Valley Ambulance)

Paramedics from Huron Valley Ambulance (HVA), in collaboration with Michigan Medicine, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, and the Washtenaw County Health Department, have completed 1,057 infusions of monoclonal antibody (MAB) medication to high-risk patients who have contracted COVID-19 throughout Washtenaw, Livingston and Western Wayne Counties.

HVA began collaborating with local health systems to combat the impact of COVID on the community in November of last year, which lead to the first six patients receiving in-home MAB infusions on Jan 2, 2021. By February 10, their in-home infusion program was in full swing. By October, HVA paramedics were operating the MAB walk-in clinic at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, and the infusion program was extended even further through an additional partnership with the Washtenaw County Health Department in November.

“With hospitals reaching capacity and wave after wave of high infection rates, we felt as EMS providers that HVA should do everything possible to help our communities fight this disease and reduce the burden on an already maximized health care system,” states Jason Fair, Project Manager at HVA. “By taking effective treatments directly to our patients, they can recover more comfortably at home and hospital capacity can be reserved for the most critical patients.”

HVA’s Community Paramedic program is leading the MAB infusion initiative. These programs are on the leading edge of providing advanced in-home medical care and support local health care systems by reducing unnecessary patient visits to the emergency room or readmissions to the hospital.