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Main Conference

Clinical Paramedicine

Prehospital Alternative Low Risk Triage (Pre-ALRT)

Thursday, September 21, 2023
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM CT
Location: 262
CE: 1
Disclosure(s):
Eric Beairsto, BA, MEd, ACP: No financial relationships to disclose
Charles Dallaire, PCP: No financial relationships to disclose
Amanda Wuerth, BA, ACP: No financial relationships to disclose
The stubbornly escalating phenomenon of ambulance off-load delays (AOD) is not new to EMS and not exclusive to the US. What may be rare within risk-averse EMS systems are solutions that put paramedics in the driver’s seat with respect to transport decisions. Ambulance New Brunswick is a Canadian Provincial Service performing 133,000 calls per year with 1000 paramedics, approximately 150 ambulances and serving a bilingual population of nearly 815,000 people.

Learning and adapting from other services, and applying our own innovation, we have created a safe and effective triage system that empowers paramedics to apply certain tools at point-of-care, and with peer support, to direct low-acuity patients to other, more appropriate entries into the healthcare system. This has had the positive effect of dramatically reducing the patients we bring to the ED, thereby reducing AOD and promoting overall system efficiency.

Learning Objectives:

  • have an understanding of the Canadian EMS system, our goals of care and our challenges with respect to ambulance offload delay.
  • appreciate how the development and growth of this program has contributed to a positive patient experience and has been a significant factor in reducing offload delays.
  • create a system similar or equal to this one and to gain insight into how this program may be (should be) linked with others to achieve the desired outcome.