WFPS testing secondary telephone triage program to manage ambulance call volumes

WINNIPEG -

The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) is testing a secondary telephone triage program to manage high call volumes for ambulances, CTV News Winnipeg has learned.

The information came to light after a family voiced concerns over how their mom’s 911 call was handled.

The program, called EPIC 9, uses advanced care paramedics to complete a more in-depth medical assessment on less sick patients after their 911 call is triaged by a dispatcher. It was developed in coordination and with support from Shared Health, the WFPS said.

But Dolores Boyce’s daughters are concerned over the time it took for an ambulance to get their mom to hospital after her 911 call went through the additional screening.

“If it had been life threatening, she could’ve passed away by then,” said Kristine Boyce, one of Dolores’s daughters.

Dolores, 77, has been receiving treatment for a blood clot for the past three months.

Thursday morning, she woke up at home experiencing severe pain in her right hip and leg and couldn’t get out of bed.

“She couldn’t physically sit up or stand because the pain was so severe, so she needed an ambulance because she had to be transferred to a stretcher and taken to a hospital,” Kristine said, adding family members couldn’t get Dolores to hospital on their own because she couldn’t move.

They said Dolores called 911 around 9 a.m. and was told someone from the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service’s Emergency Paramedics in the Community Program also known as “EPIC” would follow up.

“They said that EPIC was like a screening part of the paramedics and they would do an assessment and decide if an ambulance was required,” Kristine said.

But Kristine said her mom didn’t hear back for four hours. Once she did, Kristine said an ambulance was sent to take her to Concordia Hospital around five hours after her initial call to 911.

Her daughters feel that was too long of a wait for someone who’s being treated for a blood clot.

“If they need to prioritize and they screen, then in my mind the screening portion of it shouldn’t take hours,” said Tracey Croom, another one of Dolores’s daughters.

The family said Dolores was examined in hospital Thursday and released later that night but they’re planning on filing a formal complaint because of the time it took to get an ambulance to her home.

The WFPS said in a statement to CTV News Winnipeg its ambulances are among the busiest in the country but it cannot speak to specific medical incidents.

The WFPS said all medical calls are carefully and methodically screened for people who are critically ill or have severe symptoms.

Over the past few weeks, the WFPS said it’s also been piloting the EPIC 9 program, which it said is a secondary telephone triage program to deal with high call volumes.

“When the patient and the ACP (advanced care paramedic) connect, the ACP conducts an in-depth assessment over the phone, and if a transport ambulance is deemed to be required at any point, an ambulance is dispatched,” the statement reads. “The work completed by these paramedics allows WFPS to more accurately determine if patients with low acuity complaints could safely benefit from alternative modes of transport to hospital, rather than using a transport ambulance.”

The WFPS said so far the program is considered a success and that four paramedics have been temporarily reassigned to continue running it.

It said of the 468 low acuity calls it’s taken over the past month, 141 have been managed without an emergency response and 62 have resulted in transports to hospital in a taxi instead of an ambulance.

“When they did finally call, they made the assessment right away that, yes, she needed an ambulance,” Kristine said.

While Dolores is now back at home, her daughters are concerned the outcome could’ve been different.

The WFPS said it’s continuing to monitor the new triage program and will make adjustments and changes as needed.