Why Outreach Isn’t Optional
There’s a tendency in community paramedicine to believe that good clinical outcomes will speak for themselves. They won’t, EMS has historically been treated as a lower priority than fire or law enforcement when it comes to resources and funding, and community paramedicine is an even smaller subset of that. With Ontario recently making an $89 million investment in community paramedicine, the bar for demonstrating impact has never been higher.
The infographic lays out three core reasons why connections matter for MIH-CP leaders. First, trust and credibility; other agencies need to understand what your program is and what it isn’t. Second, better patient outcomes, MIH-CP patients often have needs that go well beyond clinical care, and without referral partners, even the sharpest paramedic can identify a problem but have nowhere to send it. Third, a smarter system overall; strong partnerships reduce unnecessary ER visits, prevent repeat 911 calls, and keep your program from becoming another siloed service in a system that already has too many of them.
Research backs this up. A 2024 study published in Paramedicine found that non-technical skills like leadership, communication, and inter-agency collaboration are just as critical to paramedic success as clinical ones. In fact, participants in the study noted that strong technical skills were of “lesser value” when practiced without adequate leadership and scene communication. The implication for MIH-CP leaders is clear: your job isn’t just to deploy skilled clinicians. It’s to build the relationships that make those clinicians effective.
See here for 5 tips to build MIH-CP partnerships that last!
The Lunch and Learn in Practice
So who should you be having lunch with? The infographic offers a solid starting list: hospitals, social workers, nursing home staff, police precinct captains, schools and universities, homeless shelters, elected officials, and retirement residences. Some programs have even developed arrangements with university social work departments to create internship pipelines, a smart move that builds capacity and credibility at the same time.
The format matters as much as the invite list. Go to them, bring the food, show up at their facility, and make it easy. Target decision-makers and gatekeepers, not general staff. Frame everything around the problems you can solve for them, not around what your program needs. And don’t let it be a one-time event. Follow up, share your referral pathways clearly, and turn that first lunch into an ongoing relationship.
This mirrors what leadership researchers call servant leadership, the idea that a leader’s most important role is to ask “what do you need?” rather than to direct or control. For MIH-CP, that means approaching partners with humility, positioning your program as a resource that fills a gap rather than a competitor encroaching on territory.
The Bottom Line
If your MIH-CP program is doing great work but struggling to grow, struggling to secure funding, or struggling to get referrals moving, the answer probably isn’t more training or better data. It’s more conversations. More lunches. More time spent with the people who control the doors your patients need to walk through.
As EMS leader Rob Fitch put it at Pinnacle: “Be a servant. Be a leader. Rock the boat.”
That starts with picking up the phone, booking a conference room, and ordering enough sandwiches for a nursing home charge nurse and her team.
