Huron County's Director Of Emergency Services Is Working On A Program To Reduce Paramedic's Wait Times At Hospitals

by Bob Montgomery

Huron County's Director Of Emergency Services says over the past couple of years they've seen an increase in what are called ambulance off-load delays.

Jeff Horseman says that refers to the amount of time a paramedic has to stay at the hospital with a patient waiting for a patient care room so that patient can be transferred over from the paramedic to the hospital. The paramedic has to remain with the patient until that can be done, which means the paramedic is not available to respond to other calls. That period of time is called an off-load and the paramedic waits, with the patient, in the hospital, until an appropriate room can be found for the patient and the paramedic would continue the care the patient required until the patient is transferred over to the hospital.

Horseman says what they're proposing to the five hospitals in Huron County is a program that's already in place in several hospitals in the province and it's called Fit-to-Sit. What that means is when the paramedics arrive at the hospital with a patient and there isn't a room available for that patient right away, if that patient meets certain criteria, that they're stable and don't require ongoing paramedic care or ongoing hospital care while they wait, they could be off-loaded into the normal emergency room waiting area, as if they had walked in off the street. In other words, patients that don't need paramedic care that show up with paramedics, would then be off-loaded into the waiting room, the same as anybody who walked in off the street.

Horseman points out, those patients would have to meet certain criteria to make sure that it's safe for them to do that. That would be patients who may have gone to the hospital on their own but they didn't have a way to get there themselves or any relatives that were available to take them to the hospital. That would allow their paramedics to get back on the road and become available for other calls. Horseman says it's a resource issue for them and the hospitals, but if they can't off-load the patient then they can't get out to respond to other calls.

Horseman says they're in the final stage of getting the program approved by the five hospitals in Huron County and they hope to have it up and running early in April.