Is Emergency Medical Services (EMS) public safety or health care? That question has been debated over the entirety of my 23-year career. EMS is the point of entry into the health care system for many patients and with limited diagnostics, a reliance on clinical signs and symptoms, medical control protocols and access to online physician support we rapidly treat and transport patients to definitive care. EMS is one of the six key components in the out of hospital chain of survival (American Heart Association 2023) playing a vital role in the probability of discharge from hospital survivability for critical ill or injured patients. With the sustained unrelenting pressure on the health care system in Alberta there has also been a focus to increase capacity to treat patients in community, which has shifted the core business of EMS.
Nationally, The Paramedic Association of Canada, is responsible for the creation and renewal of the National Occupational Competency Profile, a national examination, and registry of EMS professionals. (Paramedic Association of Canada. 2023)
Provincially, EMS is regulated by several organizations and acts. The Alberta College of Paramedics regulates the profession in Alberta. It is our licensing body and sets accreditation standards for educational institutions. It also serves as an investigative body for concerns involving registered members, upholding conduct and competency standards. (Alberta College of Paramedics. 2023)
The Health Professions Act outlines requirements that all regulated health professions in Alberta need to follow to provide care. (Health Professions Act. 2023). In 2022 a ministerial order called the Ground Ambulance Regulation was introduced and it contained updated requirements to improve current and future EMS delivery. (Ground Ambulance Regulation. 2022)
AHS expended EMS by launching a community paramedic program which was later rebranded to Mobile Integrated Health (MIH). The purpose of the program was to help address community health resource capacity issues in rural Alberta but it has evolved to have significant impacts in urban health care settings. This program has highlighted the importance of Point of Care testing (POCT), allowing paramedics to conduct point of care testing using the abbott-i-stat. (Fuz¨ ery and Kost. 2020).
Expanding access to prehospital diagnostics can have positive effects on patient outcome by allowing EMS to either transport patients to the appropriate medical facility or with the continued expansion of the Mobile Integrated Health team, provide proper treatment in community through a multidisciplinary community team approach eliminating the need for transport to hospital when possible.
References
Alberta College of Paramedics. (2023). https://abparamedics.com/
American Heart Association. (2023). https://cpr.heart.org/
Emergency Health Services Act (2022) Ground Ambulance Regulation. Edmonton, AB. Kings-printer. https://kings-printer.alberta.ca/1266.cfm?page=2020_110.cfm&leg_type=Regs&isbncln=9780779831814
Füzéry, A. K., & Kost, G. J. (2020). Point-of-care testing practices, failure modes, and risk-mitigation strategies in emergency medical services programs in the Canadian province of Alberta. Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, 144(11), 1352–1371. https://doi.org/10.5858/arpa.2020-0268-oa
Government of Alberta. (2023). Health Professions Act. Edmonton, AB. Kings-printer. https://kings-printer.alberta.ca/1266.cfm?page=H07.cfm&leg_type=Acts&isbncln=9780779841592
Paramedic Association of Canada. (2023). https://paramedic.ca/
Kommentare