By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
A report to Northumberland County council’s Community Health Committee Tuesday noted that, in the past six months, the county’s ambulances have driven 494,971 km. – or enough distance to circle the globe 12 times.
This was just one highlight in the report of the Paramedics’ first six months of 2024, provided by Paramedics Chief Susan Brown and Deputy Chief of Operations Keith Barrett.
Barrett noted that call volume of 12,365 is down slightly from this time last year, when it stood at 15,575.
There have been 195 first-response calls, 131 of which found them first at the scene. This has allowed a savings of more than 1,502 minutes, which means earlier opportunities for assessment and treatment.
Brown noted a total of almost 380 hours in hospital offload delays at the four hospitals they routinely transport to. In the case of Northumberland Hills Hospital, she said, they now have an offload nurse and a Fit To Sit program. If someone brought in is deemed fit to sit, he or she will be registered and moved into a waiting room.
There is also a Bypass protocol, where an ambulance can bypass a local hospital directly to a destination where more specialized treatment is available for a better outcome – 17 patients taken directly to a regional stroke centre, for example, and 211 to a cardiac-care centre for emergency angioplasty.
Community Paramedicine Co-ordinator Kim Wilkinson reported on the paramedicine program for the first six months of the year, with 1,283 active clients throughout the entire county (317 of them enrolled in 2024).
Wilkinson noted the speed with which new clients are seen. In 98% of cases, clients are contacted within 72 hours of referral.
“Oftentimes, we make contact the same day,” she added – “making that initial phone call, making sure they are aware of the referral and scheduling that first visit.”
Offering such services as physical assessment, vital-sign monitoring, medication management and wellness checks, this kind of proactive in-home monitoring has reduced 911 calls by about 134 and saved at least $31,000.
“In many cases, we are able to facilitate treatment, avoiding hospital visits,” she stated.
She also noted the 84 wellness clinics they had hosted in 2024 at 11 sites, with 139 in attendance. As these are more or less the figures for all of 2023, they expect to double 2023 statistics in this area.
Looking at patient-satisfaction surveys, 87% of respondents feel this care has prevented emergency-room or hospital visits. This is up 15% from last year.
