Windsor-Essex ambulance offload delays down by 7K hours with new protocol and tech

A couple of changes at Essex-Windsor EMS has freed up an equivalent of 3.36 full-time ambulances to be on the road, without having to hire extra staff.

Previously, patients were automatically sent to emergency rooms that specialized in the issues they were experiencing — even if that hospital was busy. An ambulance could then be held up at a hospital while the paramedic waits for a patient to be transferred under the hospital's care.

A new protocol was implemented in October 2018 to prevent that from happening.

"Instead of taking a patient all to one hospital, we move them around the region to share the load, and then that frees up," said Bruce Krauter, Essex-Windsor EMS chief. He said hospitals have also changed how they admit patients.

Then in December 2018, new technology was introduced to allow for better real-time monitoring of patient calls and volume.

With those changes, ambulance delay reduced by 6,994 hours from December to March.

In Leamington, Erie Shores HealthCare saw nearly double the number of patients transported to that hospital in the first quarter of 2019. That's despite a reduction in the total number of calls in the same period of time.

"Feedback from patients that would not normally have come to Erie Shores HealthCare under previous EMS protocols has been very positive," said Janice Dawson, CEO of Erie Shores HealthCare in a news release.

Code Zero

Windsor-Essex isn't the only region that has dealt with not having enough ambulances available.

The name and exact definition is different depending on where you are, but when there are fewer than three, or even zero, ambulances available, it's called a Code Zero, Code Black or Code Red.

Last year, Chatham-Kent council approved to add more staff and an ambulance, because the number of Code Zeros over five years had increased by 254 per cent.

In London, there were 29 Code Zeros between Jan. 1 and Jan. 25 in 2018.

Meanwhile in Windsor-Essex, the region hasn't seen any Code Blacks for more than nine months, according to Krauter.

He said the changes made in Windsor-Essex were in partnership with the dispatch centre, the Local Health Integration Network, the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care and the three hospitals.

"It's showing that locally, we can work together to make great improvements within our health care system," he said.