Mobile integrated health care initiative to expand to 30 counties over the next five years

Mobile integrated health care initiative to expand to 30 counties over the next five years

Friday, March 13, 2026

Media Contact: Tanner Holubar | Communications Specialist | 405-744-2065 | [email protected]

Rural Oklahomans who have made hourslong drives for basic medical care will soon be able to receive treatment at home.

Thanks to a major expansion of the Community Paramedicine Program, part of the state's Rural Health Transformation Program, more than $10 million in funding has been allocated to bring mobile integrated health care to 30 counties over the next five years, dramatically expanding access to the state's most underserved communities.

The Fire Service Training program in OSU's College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, along with the Center for Health Sciences, played a key role in developing and launching the initiative, with support from the Oklahoma State Department of Health and the Masonic Charity Foundation of Oklahoma.

This certification allows paramedics to provide mobile integrated health care through in-home visits that help patients manage chronic conditions. This helps address "ambulance deserts," where communities lack nearby physicians or hospitals, and residents are hours away from care. This model allows rural paramedics to provide care during periods between emergency calls, expanding health care access without adding new facilities.

Dr. Ed Kirtley is a former fire chief with a strong passion for providing services to underserved rural communities in Oklahoma.

"This is about taking health care to people instead of expecting people to come to health care," said Dr. Ed Kirtley, associate dean of Engineering Extension for CEAT. "In many rural areas, transportation simply isn't an option."

Knocking down barriers

The expansion of this program is built on efforts to remove longstanding barriers, particularly access to training.

Community paramedic certification requires 200 additional training hours for already-licensed paramedics, traditionally taking place in hospitals and training centers, hours away from their rural home base.

Federal funds will go toward purchasing mobile training equipment, allowing instructors to deliver training across the state. Funds will also cover the training and exam costs, toppling financial barriers that have prevented a program like this from taking off.

This program will also allocate funds to pay paramedics for these community visits. Prior policy reimbursed EMS primarily as transportation providers, incentivizing them to transport all patients to the emergency room.

"There's a lot happening at the same time," said Denna Wheeler, executive director of the Center for Rural Health at OSU-CHS. "We have new, updated legislation making its way this session. And we've got the funding to get the program off the ground. So, I feel that in a couple of years, we should have several implemented programs and be able to assess how it is working for the state."

A collaboration for the betterment of Oklahoma

OSU-CHS and CEAT, through Wheeler and Kirtley, applied for federal funding jointly to bring this program to Oklahoma. Wheeler first heard about community paramedicine about 15 years ago, shortly before legislation was passed in 2016 enabling the creation of programs to help rural health care.

Wheeler met Kirtley shortly after that, and the two discovered shared passions for improving health care in the state. They discussed the importance of a community paramedicine program and the options available to fund it.

"As we began to think about community peer medicine, we thought about applying for a grant to look at an isolated county, Delaware County, that had a lot of potential," Wheeler said. "A couple of years ago, we started working on the project and it took off. We applied for funds through the Rural Health Transformation Program, and then we were selected."

CEAT has a longstanding reputation for extension programs, especially through the FST program. J.W. Snell, FST EMS manager, is deeply familiar with the health care gaps in rural Oklahoma.

The Masonic Charity Foundation of Oklahoma donated nearly $30,000 to the Community Paramedicine Program. Pictured are: Dr. Ed Kirtley (second from left) associate dean of Engineering Extension for CEAT, Kristi Wheeler (third from left) manager of CEAT Marketing and Communications, Jill Johnson (fourth from left) senior director of development for the OSU Foundation, Kelsey Proctor (fifth from left) director of development and unit lead for the OSU foundation. They are flanked by representatives from the Masonic Charity Foundation of Oklahoma.

FST fostered the initial curriculum and its implementation during the pilot program and will continue to design and deliver standardized programs to meet the needs of rural Oklahomans.

FST will also manage training cohorts, provide technical assistance to EMS agencies and oversee quality assurance, credentialing alignment and program evaluation while supporting long-term policy and workforce sustainability planning.

Snell said many in the emergency services profession are watching the success of this program closely to see the impact of the training on health care in rural Oklahoma.

"I'm extremely excited to see this roll out," Snell said. "We can look to the future and see that this is going to have a great impact across the state. Especially when we talk about health disparities and places in rural Oklahoma that don't have a physician and aren't near a hospital. So, this is going to be a game changer for Oklahoma. As we push out more classes and more providers across the state become certified, we will see a huge impact in rural areas."