Expanding role of community paramedics to reduce ambulance calls to nursing homes

A wheel chair is pictured in a long-term care home. (File photo)

A provincially funded pilot project aims to reduce the number of times that ambulances attend a pair of local long-term care facilities by expanding the roll of the Middlesex London Paramedic Service’s (MLPS) community paramedics.

Community Paramedics provide non-emergency primary medical care at a patient’s home.

The new Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care Plus (CPLTC+) program allows community paramedics to deliver diagnostic testing to residents of Strathmere Lodge (Strathroy) and Dearness Home (London), including urinalysis, Chem-8 blood tests, and ultrasound.

“We're going to take those skills and apply them in a long-term care setting, providing benefit to the long-term care residents and preventing the transportation to hospitals,” explained Dan Griffiths, MLPS Commander of Community Medicine and Education.

The pilot project will reduce the number of LTC residents being transported to hospital by ambulance for routine medical tests, a process that can be extremely stressful for elderly and vulnerable patients.

It will also ease pressure on hospital emergency rooms and the 911 System which receives between 2,500 and 3,000 calls to long-term care facilities each year.

“While this is a tremendous improvement within the system as a whole, it's also providing better care for the residents,” said MLPS Director of Paramedic Services Adam Bennett.

Ontario’s Ministry of Long-Term Care is providing $500,000 to support the pilot project.