Paramedics in Grey County are trying to clear-up crowded hospital emergency rooms in the region by doing house calls to try alleviate the problem.

Rick Trombley has been responding to emergencies as a paramedic in Grey County for 20 years. But on Friday, Trombley made a house call to check on Stan Gracie who suffers from COPD.

“The biggest challenge is if it’s it really muggy out it’s really difficult to breathe or if it's really cold out it’s really difficult to breathe,” says Gracie.

Trombley is a specially trained community paramedic; he can reference Gracie's medical records and double check his medications. He does basic blood work as part of an overall check-up. He makes the visits every three months or whenever Gracie feels unwell.

The community paramedic program is part of a one year study being conducted by St. Michaels Hospital in Toronto to find out if community based paramedicine saves money by reducing the number visits patients make to hospital emergency rooms for their chronic conditions.

Trombley says he works closely with family doctors but it’s inside patients homes where he can help solve problems before they turn into an emergency situation.

“They may be wheelchair bound, they have other diseases that make it hard for them to get into the lab or get in to see their doctor for an appointment,” says Trombley.

The study is being paid for by the province and plans to follow 200 patients in Grey County. Paramedics in York Region started the program 2013.

Dr. Shiv Grewal is the lead physician coordinating the study at the Owen Sound Family Health Team and he is seeing positive outcomes.

“Sometimes the paramedics saw the patients were having pneumonia symptoms or exacerbations of their COPD and started them on antibiotics. I think so far it has saved several ER visits but the study data will tell us I the end how important it has been,” says Dr. Grewal.

The study still needs about 50 more patients who are being treated for chronic conditions such as COPD, diabetes or congestive heart failure.