Province provides $219K to help reduce offload times at HSN

Emergency care in Greater Sudbury got a $219,191 injection that will help nurses dedicated to treating patients who arrive by ambulance at the Health Sciences North Emergency Department.

These nurses care for ambulance patients with non-life-threatening conditions, freeing up paramedics and ambulances to respond to other emergency calls, said Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci, who announced the funding on Nov. 22.

“We are committed to ensuring patients get the care they need faster, which is why we’re funding nurses to treat patients arriving by ambulance,” said Bartolucci. “This investment will allow paramedics in Greater Sudbury to respond faster to more urgent requests for ambulance services.”

As Ontario’s population ages, municipalities are receiving more ambulance service calls. This funding will improve emergency room wait times and reduce the delays that occur when paramedics must stay with ambulance patients who do not require critical care as they wait to be admitted to the emergency room.

“Greater Sudbury Emergency Medical Services handles about 35,000 calls per year,” stated Mayor Marianne Matichuk. “This funding will help us maintain high quality, efficient and effective patient care for all of our citizens.”

“The ambulance offload initiative has been very successful in improving the quality and timeliness of care for our patients who arrive in the ED by ambulance," said David McNeil, vice-president of Clinical Programs for Health Sciences North. "Our ambulance offload times have been cut in half since last year and are now better than the provincial average.

“These results speak to the hard work, dedication and creativity of HSN's ED team and its partners like Greater Sudbury EMS and we want to make even more improvements to our ED treatment times."

Since this initiative was introduced in 2008-09, the average time ambulances spend offloading patients in participating hospitals has decreased by 16 per cent, representing a reduction of over 10 minutes per patient. More than 16,000 nursing positions have been created in Ontario since 2003.