EMS System Evaluation and Recommendations Project
City of Hamilton, Ontario
The City of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada was facing significant challenges in its efforts to maintain a high quality of emergency medical services. The issues may sound familiar to many communities in North America - growing population, increasing demand for EMS responses, little or no proportional increases in EMS funding, and hospital overcrowding causing ambulance off-load delays leading to shortages of available ambulances and consequently longer response times to emergencies.
The City engaged IPS to examine the operational response capacity and deployment models being used in Hamilton Emergency Services. The project encompassed past and current operations; its capacity to meet the provincially mandated emergency response time standards to medical emergencies and other applicable standards; and provided guidance on how to best address demands in the next five years.
The project deliverables included a critical appraisal of management strategies to mitigate emerging consumption of resources exacerbated by hospital off-load delays. Based on the response time recommendations, IPS identified manageable changes that could be implemented within one year that would yield measurable and maximum positive results with minimal financial impact. IPS provided recommendations on how to maintain and or improve the emergency medical response time and clinical performance in a 5 year deployment strategic plan and operational plan. The advice was derived from evidence-based clinical and management principles and that considered the current and future needs of the community.
To find out how IPS can help your organization, contact us at info@onlineips.com or call Mic Gunderson at 863-838-3295 or Todd Hatley at 919-656-5700.