Ottawa Paramedic Service

Ottawa Paramedic Service is a uniformed municipal public safety agency providing emergency and non emergency paramedic care to residents and visitors of city of Ottawa, Ontario. It is the sole, licenced, statutory provider and is operated directly by the city. The Service is an independent third service provider. This means that it is part of the Emergency and Protective Services department of the city but functions as an independent and separate agency from other services. The Ottawa Paramedic Service is operates in compliance with legislation and licensing standards overseen by the government of Ontario.^[1] It also provides routine, non-emergency transports and emergency paramedic coverage for special events. It is the only service provider permitted to service emergency medical calls in the City of Ottawa.

History

The Ottawa Paramedic Service came into existence on January 1, 2001 when six separate agencies providing ambulance and paramedic care to the then region of Ottawa-Carleton were amalgamated into one service. St. Lawrence & District Ambulance Services in Nepean (SLDAS), Ottawa Carleton Regional Ambulance Service in Ottawa (OCRAS), Rockland/Orleans in Orleans (ROAS), Carleton Place/Richmond in Richmond, Kanata/Arnprior Ambulance in Kanata and Eastern Medical in Osgoode all became the Ottawa Paramedic Service. In 2003 the city also assumed control of the communications centre which was,at that time, run by a third party for the government of Ontario.

The City of Ottawa has a long and storied history of paramedicine dating back over 115 years with the city and council overseeing ambulances, staffing and training. The first historical reference to ambulances and attendants is in early 1890 and was recorded in city council minutes, referring to standards for cleaning of ambulances. Up until the 1970s the city had a strong and constant involvement in the regulation and oversight of service delivery. From the turn of the century to the 1930s various hospitals, and private firms like the Hulse Brothers operated ambulance services in the city. After the war years and during the 1940s and 50s two competing privately run services emerged as key players in Ottawa, Exclusive and Twin city. During the 1960s the city, once again, took a leadership role and mandated stringent training requirements for personnel and standards for equipment and cleaning which at that time was well beyond most jurisdictions. In the 1970s the Ontario government began a program to centralize, standardize and modernize the communications systems, education requirements and the vehicle fleet throughout Ontario and this included the City of Ottawa.

In the 1980s better ambulances and equipment became the Ministry of Health's priority. In the 1990s, semi-automatic defibrillators and symptom relief medication administration became the norm for paramedic scope of practice. Due primarily to local grass roots efforts (Action Paramedic led by the ACT Foundation),^[2] political pressure and a research program called the Ontario Prehospital Advanced Life Support study (OPALS) Ottawa was the first center in Ontario to be selected to introduce fully trained advanced care paramedics (ACP) as part of a Ministry of Health province wide project. As we know them today ACPs have been in Ottawa for 15 years. Various advanced life support (ALS) response programs had been developed and implemented with much less success over the past 40 years throughout Ontario. Until 2001, Ottawa had never had a single agency provide comprehensive ACP paramedic treatment in the community. Prior to then it was typically several services operating under a single communications radio network offering only primary care paramedic (PCP) level of treatment and response.

The Ottawa Paramedic Service is part of a larger city department comprising By-law Services, Corporate Security and Emergency Management and the Fire Service. Like many other models the Paramedic Service and Fire Service are sister agencies within a single department, distinct but culturally separate. A single department overseen by a General Manager with a Paramedic Chief and a Fire Chief each with their mandate serving residents and the community.

The Service

The service is a structured hierarchy with a clearly defined rank system conforming to a national and provincial paramedic visual identity. The Paramedic Chief is the most senior leader in the Service and is responsible for the overall effective operation of the Ottawa Paramedic Service.

The office of the chief is the most senior administrative body within the branch. Under this office the service is organized into four broad functional groups called divisions. All divisions report to the Chief. Each division is further divided into sections of operational work areas. Sections may be divided into teams, units or in the case of larger sections, such as in the Operations Division, platoons. Divisions are led by a Deputy Chief, Sections by Commanders and units, teams or platoons are led by Superintendents. The Chief, Deputy Chiefs, Commanders and Superintendents together are the formal leadership team of the service.

The Service Executive Team (the Executive) is composed of the service's most senior staff including the Chief and the divisional deputies. The Senior Management Team (SMT) comprises the Executive and all command staff (the Commanders). Commanders can be responsible for 6 to 10 Superintendents and overall up to 120 staff in total. Superintendents are the front line supervisors of the service and, depending on their role, can be responsible for from 6 to 24 personnel each.

1. Operations Division - Led by a Paramedic Deputy Chief the division is divided into 4 sections (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta) which are led by a Commander with 5 platoons, each led by Superintendents

1. Communications Division - Led by a Paramedic Deputy Chief the division is divided into 2 sections, each led by a Commander including Communications Operations (Medical Dispatch) and Performance Management

1. Technical Services Division - Led by a Paramedic Deputy Chief the division is divided into 3 sections, each led by a Commander including Logistics the training and development section, and Special Operations (responsible for: Paramedic Bike Unit, Paramedic Tactical Unit, USAR [urban search and rescue], Public Support Unit, the Paramedic Marine Unit and is also responsible for contingency, special event and emergency planning)

1. Professional Standards Division - Led by a manager the division is divided into 3 sections, each led by a Commander including Professional Standards, Quality Assurance and Community Medicine

Personnel

1 Chief

3 Deputy Chiefs

1 Manager

10 Commanders

40 Superintendents (Operations, Clinical Training, Logistics, Communications, Professional Standards Quality Review and Public Information)

70 Communications Officers

6 Administrative support personnel (including Quality Assurance/Improvement Clerks, Data Analysts, Administrative Assistants and other non uniformed personnel)

25 Equipment and Supply Technicians

1 Biomedical Engineer

3 Public Training Officers

440 Advanced and Primary Care Paramedics (Sub-specialties of Marine, Tactical, USAR, CBRNE as well as others)

Fleet

A paramedic outside the Treatment and Rehabilitation Unit, during the Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa

85 Paramedic Units (Type III) - Demers Ambulances Mystère MX160A (on Ford E-Series chassis)

1 Emergency Support Unit

4 Patient Transfer Vehicles (Type III)

3 Bariatric Patient Vehicles (Modified Type III)

7 Emergency Response Vehicles (Ford Expedition)

12 Paramedic Rapid Response Units (Chevrolet Impala)

22 Bicycles

2 Truck and Trailer (Ford F-Series)

2 Off Road Rescue Units (John Deere Gator 6X4 - To be retired; 4x4 Bobcat utility vehicles now used)

1 Treatment and Rehabilitation Unit (Nova Bus LFS)

2 Emergency Shelter trailers

2 Multi-Casualty Incident (disaster supplies) trailers

Facilities

Headquarters Campus - Located at 2465 Don Reid Drive in Ottawa (The first LEED ^[3] certified building in the city) more info here

The campus is divided into two distinct areas with separate buildings one 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m²) building housing the Paramedic Communications Centre, the Ministry of Health Field Office and the Regional Paramedic Program for Eastern Ontario (RPPEO, the base Hospital) and the second building is the administrative and operational epicentre for all Paramedic Service operations. This building houses the 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m²) single start station for all urban paramedic operations in the city

Paramedic Posts - 16 strategically located throughout the city for paramedic personnel to have down time between calls

Combined Services Facilities - 8 facilities located in sub-urban and rural areas. The Emergency and Protective Services (EPS) combined services buildings house part-time firefighters and full-time Paramedics. These combined service Paramedic Posts are report to work locations outside of the urban core and are shared with the firefighters.

Level of Care

Note: The Paramedic Service is the only licensed agency in Ottawa that employs and responds certified paramedics. No other agency employs or responds paramedics in any capacity in the city.

Advanced and Primary Care Paramedicine ^[4]

Ottawa Paramedics utilize special emergency bypass protocols as well as critical interventions not normally associated with ACP or PCP level of care.

Over 700 public access defibrillators (PAD) are strategically located throughout the city in certain buildings such as a pools, hockey rinks and other public facilities as well as in all marked police cars and some fire vehicles.

Police officers and firefighters have basic first aid training and also provide fully automatic defibrillation under a first responder program. Both services may be asked to respond to certain call types at the request of the paramedic service.

All defibrillators and training for the PAD program as well as for first responders are provided by, maintained and administered by the Ottawa Paramedic Service, Community Medicine program

Research

The Ottawa Paramedic Service has a very active research committee comprising front-line personnel leading , evaluating and directing what research the service will enter into and recommend with whom the service will partner in research

The Ottawa Paramedic Service is a leading agency in paramedic and emergency medical research participating in many world class and local research programs and studies including:

1. Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium ^[5]
2. Ottawa C-Spine study Ottawa C-Spine Rules
3. Paramedic STEMI bypass STEMI^[6]
4. Paramedics Assessing Elders at Risk of Independence Loss (PERIL) and many others

Staff engagement

The Ottawa Paramedic Service has many staff-led initiatives and programs such as the Scheduling working group (SWG), the Uniform Committee, Research Committee and the Equipment Committee, all of which provide front line staff the opportunity to positively affect their day-to-day work environment.

Equipment

• Zoll E Series cardiac monitor defibrillator - Includes in house custom designed carry bag and main cot mounting brackets
• Ferno Proflexx main cot and many other Ferno products
• Demers type III paramedic units
• Light rescue gear - High conspicuity, rugged, blood born pathogen, puncture and tear resistant, chemical and environmental protection outerwear (designed by Ottawa paramedics for Ottawa paramedics) issued to all front line response staff including logistics personnel.
• Light blue cairns HP3 Commando helmet with goggles

References

1. ^ http://www.canlii.org/en/on/laws/stat/rso-1990-c-a19/latest/rso-1990-c-a19.html
2. ^ http://www.actfoundation.ca/index2.cfm
3. ^ "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia". En.wikipedia.org. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_in_Energy_and_Environmental_Design. Retrieved 2011-01-28. 
4. ^ "Paramedic Association of Canada". Paramedic.ca. http://www.paramedic.ca/Content.aspx?ContentID=4&ContentTypeID=2. Retrieved 2011-01-28. 
5. ^ "ROC - Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium : current-studies". Roc.uwctc.org. https://roc.uwctc.org/tiki/current-studies. Retrieved 2011-01-28. 
6. ^ Michel R. Le May, Richard F. Davies, Richard Dionnne, Justin Maloney, John Trickett, Derek So, Andrew Ha, Heather Sharrard, Chris Glover, Jean-Francois Marquis, Edward R. O' Brien, Ian G. Stiell, Pierre Poirier, Marino Labinaz. Comparison of Early Mortality of Paramedic-Diagnosed ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction with Immediate Transport to a Designated Primary Percutaneoous Coronary Intervention Center to that of Similar Patients Transported to the Nearest Hospital. Am J Cardiol 2006 98 (10):1329-1333

External links

1. Ottawa Paramedic Service
2. Quality Service Model of the Ottawa Paramedic Service
3. Professional Paramedic Association of Ottawa
4. Regional Paramedic Program of Eastern Ontario
5. Paramedic Association of Canada
6. EMS Chiefs of Canada
7. Land Ambulance Transition Web Site
8. Ontario Paramedic Association
9. Association of Municipal Emergency Medical Services Ontario
10. Ministry of Health (Ontario) EHS
11. NOCP

See also

1. List of EMS Services in Ontario
2. Ottawa Police Service

Ottawa portal