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Have you heard the parable of the star thrower? The story is old, but enduring; it captures the challenge faced by anyone trying to help their community:

A little girl stood on a beach covered in starfish stranded by a storm. Over and over she bent down, picked up a starfish and threw it, returning it to the water.

A man called out: “What are you doing out there? There are thousands of starfish on this beach. You can’t begin to make a difference.”

Crestfallen, the little girl thought for a moment. Then she threw another starfish, hurling it with all her might, and said: “I made a difference for that one.”

And soon enough, the man was throwing starfish too.

There are more people in need than your team can care for. The community needs more programs than you have a budget for. It’s easy to fixate on the things you cannot do and feel you aren’t making a difference at all – but that’s not the truth.
Take the Mehlville community paramedicine program, where a paramedic was told “You’re one of the most important people in my mother’s life!” just a few months after taking their case. Or take Phoenix Paramedicine Solutions, where a paramedic working with a patient at a homeless shelter took extra time to listen to his worries. The man knew a girl who used to come to the shelter; she had stopped coming, and he thought she might be in trouble. That conversation led to a police investigation and – quite literally – saved the girl’s life.

Anecdotes aside, the financial data is more compelling. Some time ago, HealthCall conducted a study and found that just 9 patients out of 2,430 were significantly skewing average program costs. These outliers were high utilizers of healthcare resources, disproportionately consuming resources like emergency department visits and inpatient care. The study was foundational for our work with mobile integrated health (MIH) clients, helping them provide proactive care for high-utilizers to address their underlying issues at a fraction of the cost.

Numerous HealthCall clients’ real-world results reveal that in MIH programs, 80% to 95% of costs are driven by just 20% to 5% of the population. This pattern compels nearly every high-utilizer MIH program today.

But your impact may be greater still; without realizing it, you may be inspiring the next generation. Consider peer support specialists. In these cases, helping someone into recovery (whether they struggled with addiction, mental health, or other problems) didn’t just help them; it inspired them to help others. Now, they use their experience to mentor and advocate for people in similar situations—a ripple effect of hope and healing started by person who chose to care.
Here at HealthCall, we’re privileged to interview clients about their work. Because of that, we know there are days when even the best and brightest feel discouraged. We hope these articles and research remind you that you are making a difference, even if you cannot see the whole picture. There is no such thing as a small act of kindness, and a life changed is never just one life.

For more information, please contact:
Sara Bruner
sbruner@healthcall.com
HealthCall, LLC