No rural service in community care paramedic program

By Sharon McLeay Times Contributor

In February 2018, Alberta Health Services (AHS) dedicated $11 million to the mobile Community Paramedic Program that treats seniors and patients with chronic conditions in their homes, supported by consults with on-call physicians and the patient’s family doctors.
However, in spite of the expansion, it will not provide the service in rural communities. All of the community care paramedics units are located in large urban centres.
“Paramedics are on the front line going where they are needed when they are needed,” said Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman in an online press conference highlighting the expansion.
The system was developed through a pilot program in Calgary and Edmonton in 2017, and success has led to the permanent program start for major urban centres in 2018, with the Calgary zone set for April 26.
“Community paramedics reduce stress for patients and their families, but also improve access to medical care for vulnerable people. By reducing the pressure on hospitals, teams have positive flow-on effects for the entire health-care system,” said Darren Sandbeck, emergency medical services (EMS) chief paramedic with Alberta Health Services.
There are some questions about the service that may need to be addressed as the program develops.
The community care medics are to be “leveraged” to support the entire EMS ambulance system.
Calls for a community paramedic will not be part of the 911 call centre, but will have its own dedicated dispatch centre, which can connect to the 911 centres.
EMS paramedics responding to emergency calls will be able to call the community care dispatch to send medics to cover calls that are discovered to be less urgent, which is hoped to free regular ambulances for more urgent calls. This works in reverse, too: a community care paramedic can call 911 dispatch for regular ambulance response if a patient is determined to need more urgent care.
There is speculation the distinct call centres may add another layer to communication problems already experienced in the current emergency response systems.
All eyes will be on the program to see if it alleviates the code red situations happening in the province, or whether it will add another level of stress to “leveraged” community medics, who may be better integrated in the mainstream EMS system with policies allowing time for in-home treatments.
Hoffman said the service may be extended to other areas of the province later, but said it would only service urban areas at the present time.