EMS Welcomes Its First Board Certified Community Paramedic

In March, Virginia Beach Emergency Medical Services Capt. Lyndee Tripp became the department’s first Board Certified Community Paramedic certified through the International Board of Specialty Certification (IBSC). 

Her achievement was possible with the support from Human Services and EMS leadership. Human Services provided training and funding for Tripp to attend the National Association of Mobile Integrated Healthcare Providers (NAMIHP) 2024 Conference in March, where she was able to get practice for the board certification test. 

Two major events in Tripp’s personal life and career inspired her to reach this accomplishment. In 2018, she experienced a life-altering health crisis. 

“Through that time in my life while I worked through that and got treatment, I was fortunate that I did not incur a significant financial burden,” Tripp said. “A lot of the people that I talked to were paying a significant amount out of pocket for their treatment and were having to make difficult choices, like choosing between paying their bills or paying for their care.” 

Tripp became more aware of the gap in preventative health care during COVID, when she was a team lead at the COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Clinic at Virginia Beach Convention Center. 

“I really felt like we were doing everything we could to protect the community. I’ve always been a proponent for prevention, for example, with our providers’ mental health. I am an advocate for trying to get preventative training for our providers (or pre-incident training) so that we were being proactive and not just reactive,” Tripp said. 

“I feel like that’s a lot of what community paramedicine is — it’s a lot more proactive than it is just reactive. In EMS, we respond to the call after something has happened. This is a way for us to engage with the community, build a positive relationship with community members, and look for ways that we can prevent illness and injury, rather than just responding to it.” 

Community Paramedics expand patient access to primary care and public health services by using EMS personnel to perform patient assessments. Community Paramedicine is an emerging healthcare specialty that increases patients access to basic services by using specially trained EMS providers, according to the IBSC. 

It also includes community education, risk and harm reduction, and intervention when EMS providers respond to the same patient frequently.  

“One example would be overdose calls. When we respond to those, we sometimes are responding to the same person multiple times,” Tripp said. 

“We try to intervene and get them the help they need so we can prevent future calls, future overdoses. Or when a patient falls. Going in and assessing why they fell and what can we do to prevent them from falling again.” 

Falls in the elderly population are the costliest in relation to health, mobility and financial stability. Those are calls EMS providers see frequently.  

Tripp is working with Virginia Department of Health and Virginia Beach Fire Department on a Fall Risk Reduction Program. Providers can identify why the patient is falling frequently, identify underlying cause and mitigate factors to prevent falls. 

Other Community Initiatives 

Tripp also will assist with the Virginia Beach Police Department’s Mobile Co-Response Team. With this initiative, providers assist patients who may be experiencing a behavioral health crisis and help with admission to psychiatric facilities rather than hospital emergency rooms. 

“This helps to free up police resources, who often must remain with the client. It also helps to decompress the ERs and decrease ER wait times. But the most important result from this program is that we are getting the patient to the right treatment with as little delay and complication as possible. For people experiencing a mental health crisis, that’s a really important step and helps to set them up for a better outcome,” Tripp said. 

“We’ve already received several referrals from our ambulance crews that have identified patients that are lacking access to care, can't get their prescriptions filled, can’t get appropriate transportation to their appointments.” 

A ‘Hub of Resources’ 

EMS Chief Jason Stroud said the Community Paramedicine program is going to grow slowly but strategically.  

“I look to Lyndee to be this ‘hub of resources,’” he said. “She’s going to be the liaison that’s linked to the health department, Human Services, the hospital system, public safety, the 911 system and whatever else is out there to try to get patients moving in the right direction and into the right resources.” 

Because of the volume of patients that EMS serves, the department will need additional resources and funding over time to expand the community paramedicine program.  

Stroud said he hopes that Tripp will be able to use data from this new approach to demonstrate the value to the health care system and possibly get some funding. 

“I’m very proud of Lyndee. Her resolve and initiative have contributed to her success, and she demonstrates it every day,” Stroud said. 

“She gets to be a departmental innovator. She’s the first and who knows what kind of legacy that will leave. When senior staff were talking about who to put in that role, it was unanimous. Everyone said ‘Lyndee.’ Everybody knew she would be the best for the opportunity.” 

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EMS is an award-winning third-service agency that answers more than 53,000 calls for service annually. Through VB Rescue, EMS utilizes a combined career-volunteer workforce and was named a 2023 American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline Gold EMS Agency. Learn more about EMS by visiting ems.virginiabeach.gov.   

Joining Virginia Beach EMS and VB Rescue is incredibly easy. Visit ems.virginiabeach.gov/volunteer to learn more and start your application today. You can also contact Virginia Beach EMS at vbems@vbgov.com.