Service Commitment 2011
RESPONSE TIME STANDARD
The provincial response time standard for the City Of Hamilton is to have an ambulance or a paramedic emergency response vehicle arrive on scene within 10.03 minutes in at least 90% of the calls that are dispatched as life threatening (Code 4), starting from the time the HES EMS crew is notified of the call by the MOHLTC Central Ambulance Communications Centre (CACC).
HES EMS COMMITMENT TO ACHIEVING THE RESPONSE TIME STANDARD
In an effort to achieve the provincial response time target performance, HES EMS will endeavour to provide an annual minimum of 366,912 hours of front line paramedic and paramedic supervisor staffing. HES EMS requires the MOHLTC CACC to rigorously follow the HES EMS deployment guidelines to maximize the effectiveness and equity of the paramedic responses.
HES EMS at any given time will endeavour to maintain:
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178 full time paramedic positions, 42 of those positions for Advanced Care Paramedics. At any given time HES EMS have approximately 60 to 80 part-time paramedic staff.
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20 full time paramedic supervisors; 12 of 20 are dedicated to street service leadership & support; 4 assigned to education, and 4 assigned to provide time off coverage.
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Support service including; 1 data clerk, 1 data coordinator, 1 IT analyst, 1 scheduling clerk every day, a professional standards manager, 4 platoon managers, 2 Operations Managers that lead Logistics and Continuous Quality Improvement, and an EMS Director. To assist with time off for the Platoon Managers HES EMS will maintain a compliment of 4 to 8 part time Platoon Managers and part time supervisors. HES EMS also has direct support from Stores, Mechanical, Labour Relations and shared support from Corporate Health, Human Relations, Purchasing, Finance, Payroll, Corporate Management Team, Information Technology, Risk Management, etc.
With this staffing model HES EMS typically provides street service coverage of;
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12 ambulances staffed 24 hours, 7 days a week; 8 ambulances staffed 12 hours a day, 7 days a week; and during peak periods of the week there are as many as 22 ambulances on the street.
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6 Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) staffed with one primary care paramedic with one unit in each of the six communities within the City Of Hamilton to facilitate an equitable city-wide paramedic response
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3 Paramedic Supervisor Emergency Response Vehicles (ERV) 24 hours, seven (7) days a week; one above the escarpment and two below (East and West) to provide street service support, leadership, and emergency coverage.
This resource/demand strategy ensures that HES EMS is providing the most efficient use of available resources for the community, and it is adjusted as required based on changes in demand.
In addition, HES EMS has facilitated the training of over 1400 city-wide staff in CPR and public access defibrillation (2008 to 2009) with Hamilton having 115 existing PAD devices in various city facilities and other public areas. In 2009 and continued in 2010, HES EMS has been actively involved in providing CPR awareness and orientation education.
COMMITMENT TO THE RIGHT LEVEL OF CARE
HES EMS endeavours to maintain a sufficient complement of Advance Care Paramedics (ACP) and to augment the skills of the Primary Care Paramedics to ensure that the most critical pre-hospital patients receive a level of care that is consistent with the most recent and relevant medical literature.
COMMITMENT TO CACC
Daily adjustments to the HES EMS staffing are communicated to the MOH CACC no later than the start of each shift and adjustments during the shift communicated as they occur.
Revised by B. Browett, February 1st, 2011