Alberta Provincial Ambulance Merger - INFO HERE

[Jay911]

This thread will serve to provide info on and discuss the provincial ambulance effort being undertaken by the Government of Alberta. The issues are twofold: Consolidation of ambulance services, and consolidation of dispatch services.

CONSOLIDATION OF DISPATCH SERVICES

The province wants to have "nine or less" provincial dispatch centers for all ambulance operations within the province. This corresponds to the nine Health Regions established by Alberta Health (see below for their depictions). The term "nine or less" has been tossed about quite a bit, because it is possible that the province will select one agency to handle dispatch for more than one Health Region.

The bidding for interested parties to apply for consideration as a dispatch center passed on November 10, 2008. The latest deadline given for announcement of the decisions on which dispatch center(s) will be chosen is December 18, 2008. Watch this space for further info on or after that date.

It is my understanding that dispatch services are to be established and in place before the operations consolidation scheduled for April 1, 2009. The original date for dispatch consolidation was to be January 1, 2009, but as the announcement date has been pushed back nearly three weeks from its original date of November 28, 2008, it is possible the dispatch switchover may be postponed.

OPERATIONS CONSOLIDATION

The province intends to assume control over all ambulance services operating in the Province of Alberta as of April 1, 2009. This does not include ambulance services that operate exclusively on First Nations lands as they are considered federal entities. First Nations ambulances which have contracts to operate in Province of Alberta areas are special cases.

As it is currently understood, there are two options for the 30 existing ambulance agencies in the province. Option one is to divest all capital and etc. to the province, in other words, to dissolve the ambulance service and allow it to become part of Alberta Health. Option two involves contracting existing ambulance services to Alberta Health. In my region I have heard of only one of a half-dozen or more agencies which intends to contract out service; the remainder intend to divest their resources.

Agencies with cross-trained firefighter/paramedic staff who attend medical calls on the ambulance and move to the fire truck for a fire response will no longer be allowed to do so. Duty shifts must be exclusive to either the ambulance or the fire service.

Municipalities/Health Regions are welcome to continue using firefighter and other means of first response, but Alberta Health has stated it will not finance anything beyond the standard ambulance service. In other words, first responder costs will be borne by the municipalities.

Ambulances may be deployed anywhere within their home Health Region (see below).

Other details have not yet been released by Alberta Health.

ALBERTA HEALTH REGIONS

Alberta is split into nine Health Regions, as follows:

(Images taken from Alberta Health website(s))

Provincial Overview Map

Region 1 - Chinook

Region 2 - Palliser

Region 3 - Calgary

Region 4 - David Thompson

Region 5 - East Central

Region 6 - Capital

Region 7 - Aspen

Region 8 - Peace Country

Region 9 - Northern Lights

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This thread will be 'unlocked' after the announcement of Dispatch agencies, currently scheduled for December 18, 2008.

 

[Jay911]

Yet again, the province has delayed the announcement until "on or before December 23, 2008". They're pretty tight-lipped about their reasons; even the interested parties aren't privy to the information as of yet.

I'll open the thread for now, with a little tidbit on something I heard about governance (operations). Supposedly while there are nine health regions being operated, the governance will only include five regions. These will be: Calgary (up to 30km outside/around the city), Edmonton, and North, Central, and South. It remains unknown where the lines for these will be drawn. Obviously these governance regions will not cover an entire operational region, so it remains to be seen how/why this is being done, or where, for example, the parts of the Calgary Health Region outside the 30 km range (i.e. Banff, Vulcan, Nanton, Claresholm) will be governed from.

 

[robertmac]

Let's hope that they do a better job of this conversion than they have with Health Care in Alberta. However, reading these posts it just confirms to me that the Government has do idea on how health care should be handled. They often say that the cost of Health Care isn't sustainable, but now we have them switching Ambulance services to the Health Regions. I don't want to get into a pro and con of this. However, I hope they do this right the first time. Just like Health Care, it could cost people a lot of suffering and deaths!

 

[SCPD]

Yet again, the province has delayed the announcement until "on or before December 23, 2008". They're pretty tight-lipped about their reasons; even the interested parties aren't privy to the information as of yet.

I'll open the thread for now, with a little tidbit on something I heard about governance (operations). Supposedly while there are nine health regions being operated, the governance will only include five regions. These will be: Calgary (up to 30km outside/around the city), Edmonton, and North, Central, and South. It remains unknown where the lines for these will be drawn. Obviously these governance regions will not cover an entire operational region, so it remains to be seen how/why this is being done, or where, for example, the parts of the Calgary Health Region outside the 30 km range (i.e. Banff, Vulcan, Nanton, Claresholm) will be governed from.

I’m not sure which turf war is more heated around Edmonton. Drug wars between Somali gang and White-boy Posse or Control of dispatch services between County of Parkland and Strathcona county with Edmonton stuck in the middle.

Don’t be surprised we see no changes.
Currently Strathcona county dispatch pretty much everything east of Edmonton city limits into East Central Health district with a few exceptions.

Then, Parkland county dispatch west of Edmonton city limits into Captial Region west to Aspen Health District with the exception of St. Albert City and Devon

Leduc City is dispatched from Strathcona yet Leduc county is dipsatched by Parkland. Town of Beaumont in Leduc county is dispatched by Edmonton EMS and Beumont fire.

 

[omrail]

Devon is dispatched by parkland. Devon fire is district 2 of parkland county fire and the ems is parkland

Beaumont as will as Calmar fire dispatch them self’s for fire calls. all calls are answered by the on-call member. Beaumont and Calmar are not part of the Leduc county fire department

 

[CanuckEMTP]

Firstly I would like to say hello to all as this is my first post. I found this site while searching for information on the dispatch contract awards for Alberta Health Services.

Secondly I am not a dispatcher I am a FF/EMTP. We were just informed yesterday that we are losing our EMS dispatch for our region as we were unsuccessful in our bid to Alberta Health Services. I was just wondering if anyone here has heard of who the successful bidders were for the Southern Region? According to the transition, dispatch is supposed to be in place prior to April 1st (see previous posts by Jay911) and it would be interesting to hear who is going to be dispatching our service. I am sure the information will be found here before our administration lets us know.

Thanks and Merry Christmas to everyone

 

[robertmac]

Hum, Dec. 23 has come and gone. Granted, the following days have been a holiday for some [not everyone, especially health care workers and police/fire/ems]. So, Dec. 29 being the first real working day for most people, would be interested to know if the overpaid MLAs and their departments have done any work yet. As a SK amateur radio operator used to say, I am waiting with baited breath for more info.

 

[Jay911]

Besides our friend from Lethbridge who chimed in, I've heard very little myself. The only thing being said right now is that we (Calgary PSC) won't get an answer until January now.

However, I again heard a rumor that all the parties that didn't get the contracts were told so on the 23rd.. which seems to mesh with the Lethbridge fellow's statement. Seems kind of weird, though, if they told x number of agencies "sorry, nope" and left the others who are the winners in the dark.

 

[rescue54]

...so do I understand it correctly that until they plunk down a little ambulance (contracted to the alberta health) here in Crossfield, I will still be be doing both rescue, and medicals from our fire app.?

 

[Jay911]

What one of our Redwood chiefs was told earlier this year when he brought that up with the province was, "we think first responders (aka fire doing first response to support EMS) is a great idea, but don't expect any $ for it." In other words, in your and my case, if Rockyview decides that it still wants us to provide medical first response, it's welcome to do so under the provincial model, but it will not get any funding from Alberta Health to make it happen.

 

[rescue54]

...so are you saying that we can not bill for it? I guess if we are dispatched we should be able to bill for it right? Talking to my Chief tonight it sounded like we would most likely get toned for Charlie's, Delta's etc.

Obviously I'm am not a career FF but I did not join for the money either. Honorarium is nice but I am the type who works best under duress and high stress environement. I couldn't imagine doing less calls per year.

 

[CanuckEMTP]

First response will stay as is but the Fire Dept's have to bill themselves for the response, there will be no money from Alberta Health for the service.

It's gonna be interesting for the integrated services. Ambulance goes out for a call then 5 to 10 min later the engine leaves the same hall to back up the ambulance...... oh my what a model this is gonna be.... lol

 

[robertmac]

And guess who picks up the real costs of this-the public through taxes and extra billings. Why don't they just drop all taxes and bill people through the teeth when they really need help. Just wait till they de-insure Health Care. One will have to become a full time broker to find the best insurance at the lowest cost. And then if you are at risk, just try and get insurance. If you live in the country, can you imagine what you would have to pay for house insurance and then for any Police, Fire, EMS service that respond. Now, if I do need something, I don't think I will have much chance to say I only require EMS without a FIre response. If Fire is sent and I only requested EMS, why should I pay extra for Fire? As per the case in the light plane crash near Claresholm where the wife was billed for Fire response when not all equipment was required. But this is the way the Alberta Government has gone and is going. They will not pay for the best quality, but only provide funding for the lowest educated, trained personel to look after people [MD excepted]. So it's going to be really interesting to see how these departments will bill the consumer.

 

[Jay911]

I have one thing to say on this topic before I shut it down: People who call for help don't have the ability to say you require "only EMS and not a Fire response". Actually, yes, people have the ability to do that, and you (the public) do it often. But luckily enough, you don't get what you ask for (demand). This is especially relevant when your ambulance is a great distance away, i.e. 30-40 kilometers (minutes), even in the city, where a trained firefighter/EMT like me can get there almost a half-hour before the ambulance and provide care. Furthermore, the medics frequently take a firefighter/EMT from the fire truck as a driver or an extra pair of hands in the back to help out on the way to the hospital. If the caller decides that, despite the fact they haven't the medical expertise to know what exactly is needed (or else they wouldn't be calling 9-1-1), they want to save a few bucks and demand that the fire truck not show up, who is going to drive or be that extra pair of hands? Would you tell a plumber to bring only two wrenches and 10 feet of replacement copper pipe? Would you demand that the power company only send out one guy in a pickup truck when your lights go out (and you don't know whether it's anything from a breaker in your house to a pole cleaned off the ground 5 miles away)?

I'm sorry if this seems argumentative, but as a responder and a dispatcher, I'm so tired of having people say "I ONLY!!!1!!1!!one!!1!eleven! want an ambulance, no fire truck!" and the medics end up needing a driver, or having people want the fire department to help them with something and then say "You're not going to send one of those big fire trucks, are you?", as if there's something else we would be able to send, like a Smart Car. If you want the help of emergency services, tell us what you need, and let us decide what to bring, seeing as how we're the experts.

Having said that, I feel the need to remind people that this thread is about the provincial ambulance merger, especially the actual merging and the dispatch services and communications issues thereof. Other topics should be discussed in other threads. This is to be left for the provincial consolidation only, even if that means nothing is posted in this thread for a few weeks until news is posted by the province. If we can't stay on topic, I will lock the thread again.

 

[elray4321]

Whats the hearsay on Red Deer as a central dispatch. Seems to be one of the big ones around here, hopefully they can get the area.

 

[Trexer]

No info yet?
Any new eta?

 

[robertmac]

Hum, in Jay's other, now closed, thread there was a link to the Alberta Government web site on this subject. But today, I cannot see much posted. In fact, Jay's link to RR seems to have been removed. Hopefully, this is just because the site is being updated. But?

 

[Jay911]

robertmac,

That thread has to do with the Alberta First Responders' Radio Communication System (AFRRCS), which is an entirely separate project run by Service Alberta and the Alberta Office of the Solicitor General. It has no connection to the Alberta Provincial Ambulance Merger (Transition) being managed by Alberta Health Services.

The Material Archive page on the AFRRCS site is still very much there, as is the FAQ page, but the links to those pages have been removed from the home page for some reason.

The merger/transition of dispatch services for Alberta EMS is part of the Ambulance Transition, and there is no new information to be had as far as I know, though I may learn more today when I arrive at work.

The latest rumor I have heard is that all parties who did NOT get contracts to do dispatch were told so prior to Christmas. A posting in this thread by a fellow FF/EMT from Lethbridge seems to bear that story out.

 

[Intellgence2008]

Alberta Provincial Ambulance Merger

All I can say is it is about time for Alberta Provincial Ambulance Merger, and I also like the idea of either your EMS or Fire you can not be both. I know people are resistant to change but this is better, what I hope we will see here in Alberta is uniformity such as ambulance equipment and exterior design,also one uniform design for the province.Hopefully to see a province wide Medical protocols,instead of one area do treatment one way and down the road they are doing it another way,again no uniformity. Electronically/communications should be all put in a provincial view, i.e. a paramedic crew who transports a to a neighboring town when clear would check in to the covering dispatcher for a posting, if the area they are available at and there are no resources available that crew may be covering that area until a local crew becomes available. With adequate detail computer mapping system there is no excuse of where to go for the call. I know Nova Scotia was set up Provincially and crews from one end of the province can cover when available from a routine transfer to another hospital in the province that could be 300 Km away. And they find where they are going even though they have no idea themselves where the address the computer mapping and the local dispatcher can be beneficial . Another thing there should be only one EMS dispatcher center for the province, where dispatchers are divided in regions i.e. North,South,East,West or Northeast, Southeast, Central 1 and 2 (city areas Calgary -Central 1 and Edmonton Central -2). All dispatchers in one room is better coordination and in a disaster information is better distribute to crews and other agencies. Also, all EMS units should have all radio channel for all hospitals and mutual aid frequencies such as RCMP, Local Police, STARS, DOT, DND,Sheriff. Also, included in radio frequencies Digital freq. for special assignments such as VIP (Presidents or Prime Minister or other delegates) visiting an area and EMS on scene needs secure radio communications.
Consistency,is the prime reason for the change, for too long patient care varied and this is not a benefit for a patient who has had chest pain in two different areas and received two different treatment, this is not right. Fire service should be first responder only (basic treatment) until Provincial EMS paramedics arrive on certain calls only such cardiac arrest, lift assistance from residence, Severe SOB call only if EMS is going to be delayed greater than average response time.
Concluding, this will be for the better such as data research and training provincially every Paramedic and EMT will have the same layout of equipment in their ambulance whether your in Edmonton or Medicine Hat you find the Life-Pak 12 in the same area of the ambulance, I suggest the crests on the shoulders of the uniforms be the same EHS Alberta or EMS Alberta. Thanks!

 

[robertmac]

Agree and disagree with Intellgence2008 statements. I have to say people are not widgets or a 426 Hemi. While standards, protocol, treatment guidelines have been developed, changes and enhancements in treating people will only come if there is divergence in how people are cared for. There are always new modalites of treatment, equipment being developed because not everyone is inside the box. Don't mind the same type of vehicles as long as a monopoly is not given to one company. Agree with standardization of uniforms, but, boy, I hate "black". Black usually stands for some one bad. EMS people are supposed to be "good" and black confuses them with police [? fire]. I do agree with Jay in that, coming from a rural community, the regionalization of ambulance services has already cut back on Paramedics and ambulance coverage. So Fire would be the logical department to be first responders to an EMS call. EMS could be 30 mins. away when this regionalization occurs. This will put more emphasis on Fire, but who will pick up this cost? Now, for all the coms. in one room. I wonder what Jay has to say about this. Having worked in an EOC, it was very distracting to have all the radios and people talking. Granted, did help that everyone kind of knew what was going on. But this was just 1 local EOC with reporting to regional EOCs. I would have no problem with them being in the same building but in the same open area room? Also, having worked in open air offices with partitions between workers, how I wished for vibrating office phones instead of the ringing all the time. And I grew up with numerous GRS, Ham, and scanners on all the time. I think there has been a stab at all departments co-ordinating during special times, but there still exists a feeling that departments like to be independent. Now for one other comment, what codes will be adopted if all coms. are in the same area? Do we use 10-4, Roger, Message Received, etc.. EMS certainly uses a lot of different codes than Police and Fire. STARS doesn't really use a lot of codes. But you can see where I'm going with this. I don't disagree with change, I just disagree when the change is not thoroughly thought out and tested. I can't speak to Nova Scotia as I have no knowledge of the system or province. I will say, Alberta is much, much, more larger and many more towns/cities, rural areas. So what's good for the gander [I know it's in Newfoundland, not NS] may not be good for the goose. I just don't want to see people falling through the cracks with Police, Fire, EMS, like they are with Health Care in this province.