BEARDMORE — The Superior North EMS base in Beardmore closed its doors for the last time earlier this week.
Now Beardmore and surrounding communities will be served by a paramedicine program, which is a hybrid model of first-response and community healthcare in which a community paramedic takes on a more active role in promoting community health.
"The paramedic will do a lot of health promotion and a lot of health surveillance," said Jim Greenaway, command of community safety for Superior North EMS. "They’ll try to catch people when they are struggling with their health and when they need to seek care. The idea is instead of calling 911 and going into a hospital where they might be at risk, we provide care at home through collaborations with a great number of community resources.”
Although the community paramedic will still be able to respond to emergency medical calls, their community paramedic response unit vehicle cannot transport patients. Ambulances from Geraldton or Nipigon will be called for transportation.
The closure is a result of Thunder Bay city council controversially approving the Superior North EMS master plan last yaer. The master plan outlined several EMS bases operating in the North Shore areas that were to be amalgamated.
"I can understand there might be a lot of apprehension about an EMS base closing. But I truly believe that with the service that EMS can provide through [community paramedicine], it'll actually enhance healthcare in the community by really leveraging the primary care, home and community care services, having our paramedics more active in the community, instead of waiting in a base for that 911 call to happen," said Greenaway.
Greenaway said the paramedicine program’s main focus will be chronic diseases and diabetes. Paramedics will install monitoring equipment in the patient’s home. The patient will then use the equipment to record the vitals which will track their biometrics.
Therefore, the paramedic will analyze the biometric data and pick up on any changes in the patient’s vitals. If the changes are drastic, the paramedic will perform a home visit. If the patient needs to go to the hospital, the paramedic will call for an ambulance to bring them to the Beardmore Health Centre or the hospital in Geraldton.
"It's a complete switch from what we normally do, from reactive medicine to proactive healthcare. The paramedics will do a lot of health promotion, a lot of health surveillance, they'll try to catch people when they're struggling with their health when they need to seek care, and the idea is instead of calling 911 and going into a hospital they might be at risk, we provide care in the home,” said Greenaway.
For now, there is one paramedic in the community, working Monday to Friday. The plan is to deploy a second community paramedic and expand service to seven days a week. Anyone living between Jellicoe and Rocky Bay can talk to their primary care provider about accessing the new community paramedicine services.