Established 1994 Jurisdiction Provincial Website www.gov.ns.ca/ehs/ | Headquarters Halifax, Nova Scotia Employees 900 | |
Ambulances 150 ground, 1 rotary wing, 1 fixed wing | ||
Emergency Health Services (EHS), an emergency medical services (EMS) agency, is responsible for providing emergency and primary health care to patients outside of a hospital. It also deals with transportation between hospitals and medical facilities.
Contents
- History
- Centralized Medical Communications Center
- Ground ambulance services
- LifeFlight
- Atlantic Health Training and Simulation Centre
- Medical first response program
- Nova Scotia trauma program
- Extended Care Program
- RESTORE
- MedicAlert Interchange Project
- EHS facts
- References
In the province of Nova Scotia, Canada, EHS is a branch of the Nova Scotia Department of Health.
All ground ambulance and air ambulance service in Nova Scotia is contracted by EHS to Emergency Medical Care Inc. (EMC), a subsidiary of Medavie EMS Inc. which is itself a subsidiary of Medavie Blue Cross.
EHS is responsible for administering the contract for Nova Scotia's pre-hospital emergency health services. The contract is delivered by EMC through 150 ground ambulances and their support facilities, one helicopter and one fixed-wing aircraft, and approximately 900 paramedics.
EHS leases all ground ambulances and support facilities which are operated under contract by EMC. Many of the EHS Paramedic Stations are single-unit structures in the smaller rural communities, while having larger paramedic stations in larger centres that have the capacity to house a diverse fleet of vehicles. Every hospital in the province and many community health centres have helipads for LifeFlight air ambulance service.
EMC, EHS and the Medical Communications Centre (MCC) are located in Burnside Business Park in Dartmouth for coordinating emergency medical services across the province.
History
Prior to 1995, Nova Scotia relied on approximately 50 funeral home, private and public ambulance companies, the owners of which were represented by the Ambulance Operators Association of Nova Scotia (AOANS). The level of medical care, staff qualifications, type and condition of ambulances and supplies, and working conditions varied throughout the province. Most medical air transportation was provided by the Canadian Forces' 413 Transport and Rescue Squadron operating out of CFB Summerside (1968-1990) and CFB Greenwood (1990-present). 413 Squadron used search and rescue aircraft such as the CH-113 Labrador helicopter as well as the CC-115 Buffalo and later the CC-130 Hercules fixed wing aircraft to deliver aid to the civil power missions.
In 1993, Cape Breton Island native Dr. Ron Stewart, who was instrumental in organizing emergency medical services in southern California earlier in his career during the 1970s, was elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly and was appointed the Minister of Health. Dr. Stewart quickly commissioned several reports on health care reform, one of which was conducted by Dr Mike Murphy, the director of emergency services at the Isaac Walton Killam Children's Hospital which offered a comprehensive evaluation on the state of the province's ambulances. Dr Murphy's report was highly critical of the ambulance system at that time.
The recommendations of the Murphy Report were subsequently adopted and by 1994 the transformation of Nova Scotia's ambulance system began. The Nova Scotia Dept of Health created Emergency Health Services to take over control of ground ambulance operations.
From 1994 until 1999, the previous contract for ground ambulance service in Nova Scotia with the Ambulance Operators Association of Nova Scotia (AOANS) was gradually taken over by Emergency Health Services, consolidating all the private ambulance companies in Nova Scotia into a single entity. A new contract was then awarded, under a long-term performance based contract, to Emergency Medical Care Inc. (EMC). EMC is a subsidiary of Medavie EMS Inc. which is a holding company within the Medavie Blue Cross group of companies.
Centralized Medical Communications Center
EMC operates a central communications dispatch centre in Burnside Business Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia for coordinating emergency medical services across the province.
Ground ambulance services
EHS leases 150 ambulances through Tri-Star Industries of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. This fleet is procured by the Government of Nova Scotia and managed and operated under contract by Emergency Medical Care Inc. (EMC). There are 65 strategically located ambulance bases throughout the province, some of which are owned by EHS, others are rented by EMC (e.g. volunteer fire departments).
LifeFlight
EHS initiated air ambulance service for Nova Scotia in 1994 in partnership with CHC Helicopter Corporation (CHC) and the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society (STARS). STARS operated the service until 2001 when it opted not to renew its agreement with EHS, citing philosophical diffences over management and fundraising. EHS operated air ambulance service directly under the new name "LifeFlight" and awarded a long-term operating contract for this service to Emergency Medical Care Inc. (EMC) in 2008.
Atlantic Health Training and Simulation Centre
The Atlantic Health Training and Simulation Centre is a training facility for emergency medical services personnel such as paramedics.
Medical first response program
The medical first response program is a program that responds personnel to a life-threatening emergency situation if they are closer than the paramedics to rapidly stabilize the scene and/or patient(s), to provide relevant medical information to paramedics before they arrive, and to support paramedic care onscene after paramedics arrive. They are not used on every EHS call, only life-threatening calls or on an individual basis as requested by paramedics. Although dominated by the volunteer fire service; first responders can also include police/RCMP, life guards, security guards, etc. Trained personnel are certified as Medical First Responders (MFR)'s. They are able to provide advanced first aid, including oxygen administration, and early defibrillation as required.
Nova Scotia trauma program
The trauma program is to facilitate optimal trauma care by providing education, research leadership in injury prevention and control and trauma system development.
Extended Care Program
The program involved a team of Advanced Care Paramedics (ASP) who were assigned to a unique ECPs role in the nursing home. These ECP's received specialized training tailored to the needs of nursing home patients. This included geriatric assessment and management and other advanced skills such as suturing. The benefit to CDHA is fewer patients are bring transported to their facilities - that means less emergency department congestion, reduced consumption and alignment with their focus on patient-centred care. Additionally, it fees up paramedics on the ambulances to more efficiently and effectively provide emergency patient care for those who need it. After 41 weeks ECPs attended to 599 nursing home calls and 73% patients were treated on site without the need for ambulance transport.
RESTORE
Heart attack patients who are experiencing chest pain and call 911 will receive faster treatment through new training by Advance Care Paramedics. As part of government's Better Care Sooner health plan, the provincial prehospital STEMI Reperfusion Strategy (RESTORE) expanded province wide. This use of prehospital thrombolytics has the potential to significantly reduce the damage to heart muscle caused in a heart attack.
MedicAlert Interchange Project
MedicAlert Access—En Route in Nova Scotia allows paramedics to access the MedicAlert emergency health record from ambulances and include it as part of the electronic patient care record. The Siren ePCR software, developed by Medusa Medical Technologies, is used by paramedics to chart the care they provide to patients in the field. Paramedics can now call up a patient's MedicAlert record, to obtain critical data such as allergy, medication, and physician information.