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Right Care, Right Now


Right Care, Right Now

Providing every caller to 911 with the most appropriate and responsible path to improved health outcomes.

Not every call to 911 necessitates transportation by an ambulance to a hospital's emergency department. Based on a caller's description of their symptoms, a caller may be transferred to a registered nurse in order to determine the most appropriate path for treatment.

Right Care, Right Now is the District’s program specifically focused on connecting you with the most appropriate health care. Managed by DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services (DC FEMS), the goal is to improve your health outcomes.

When to call 9-1-1:

  • Trouble breathing or unable to breathe

  • Symptoms of a heart attack

  • Fainting or dizziness

  • Bleeding that will not stop

  • Severe or persistent vomiting

  • Sudden sever pain anywhere in the body

  • Serous medical emergencies that you believe are life threatening or may become life threatening

When NOT to call 9-1-1:

  • You need transportation to a doctor’s appointment

  • Getting a scraped knee bandaged

  • Needing a prescription to be filled

  • For a sprained or twisted ankle

  • For transportation to another area of the city

  • Whenever the injury is not life threatening

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