CARES (Community Assistance Referral & Education Services) is a program offered by North County Fire & EMS that seeks to improve the health and well-being of our citizens through care coordination. Operating on a referral basis, we rely on fire department personnel to identify patients that may benefit from the CARES program. Although there are many potential reasons for a referral, the most common is repeated calls to 911 for emergency medical services (EMS). The goal is to work with the patient to find long-term, sustainable solutions to the complex medical and social challenges they face and provide alternatives to EMS. We’ve found that by engaging in this work, known as care coordination, we are better able to serve the patient and our community. A secondary goal of the program is to reduce the amount of non-emergent calls that our firefighters and paramedics respond to.