Tarrant County Public Health will assist Arlington emergency services in treating people who frequently call 911 for non-emergency reasons in a move that could save emergency services up to $1 million, county health spokesperson Kennedy Sam said.
The project will have Arlington Emergency Medical Services identify “superusers,” or those who call 911 frequently, and refer them to Tarrant County officials. The county will then have health workers, part of the Community Engagement Team, treat those individuals sent to them, according to the agreement.
"There's about an $8.4 million cost to respond to those non-emergency calls," Sam said.
County personnel on the Community Engagement Team have already been funded by the 2025 budget, according to the Commissioners Court’s agenda.
"We have some dedicated members of our Tarrant County Public Health Department who are assigned to this team," Sam said. "There will be designated days or designated times they would come out and visit with the folks who have been identified."
Arlington officials say some superusers are experiencing opioid addiction, dealing with a mental health crisis or struggling with chronic disease. Research suggests people who are superusers are more likely to suffer from loneliness, mental illness or poverty.
"When you can start identifying those groups, you can start reducing the number of calls a little bit,” Chris Weinzapfel, operations manager for Arlington EMS, said.
These individuals are usually known by EMS workers and their calls can take longer to resolve, Weinzapfel said. Last year, Arlington ambulances responded to just under 60,000 calls and currently handle about 150 to 200 calls a day.
“By having a community engagement team, you have the ability to take those calls and, if necessary, even engage them in time to where they can either head those off or we already have an answer for how to respond when we get there to plug them into those resources,” he said.
These frequent calls are “often associated with chronic disease management difficulties, frequently linked to limited health education or inadequate access to care,” according to the Commissioners Court’s agenda.
Dr. Jennifer Severance, associate professor and gerontologist at the UNT Health Science Center, said coping with chronic pain involves knowing how to get support and self-monitor.
“Overall, being open to learning and applying new strategies to be able to adapt our activities as needed and communicating effectively with a helpful network can help us continue to do the things we want to do, need to do, and enjoy doing, even with chronic pain,” Severance said.
Sam said workers will help individuals get access to healthcare products, utility assistance, food and transportation. They will also educate people dealing with chronic illness on how to properly take their medicine and handle the side effects.
Dylan Duke is KERA's summer 2025 SPJ news intern. Got a tip? Email Dylan Duke at dduke@kera.org.
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