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Accidents involving Emergency Vehicles

The special units and teams all have their various training programs. Competition is Internal. Some based on "Senior Qualified" others on "Relative Ability".


If you don't mind me asking, what is the "training pipeline" in Alberta?

Only thing I know for sure, is if you know one service, all you know is one service, and its provincial regulator.
Not that any one is better or worse than another. Just different.

To become a PCP, you first have to become an AEMCA - Advanced Emergency Medical Care Assistant.

To become an AEMCA, you must attend a recognized 2-year Primary Care Paramedic program in a community college.

Before you can apply to a college, you must provide proof of the prerequisites:

  • Current Standard First Aid (or equivalent) certificate
  • Current CPR (Level-C) - Basic Cardiac Life Support
  • Senior math, biology, chemistry and English high school courses
  • Ontario Secondary School Diploma or equivalent
  • Class 'F' Drivers License - Ontario
  • Current Immunizations (including Hepatitis A/B, Chicken Pox & Influenza vaccine)
  • Be free of all Communicable Diseases
  • Be physically fit & able to lift
  • Possess good communication skills & be able to fluently read & write English
  • Be at least 18 years of age upon completion of the program
Then come the Written Evaluation, Multiple-Mini Interviews ( MMI ), Driving Evaluation, and Sunnybrook Regional Base Hospital Evaluation.

After hiring, you go through the departmental new recruit training system and orientation, preceptorship with a Field Training Officer ( FTO ) and probation. It has changed beyond recognition since I hired on.

For the rest of your career, there will be Continuing Medical Education ( CME ) with the department, and Base Hospital.

To become an Advanced Care Paramedic, you must first successfully complete the 2-year Primary Care Paramedic program, and have a minimum of three years street experience as a PCP.

The Advanced Care Paramedic program is an additional year.

The Critical Care Transport Unit (CCTU) program transports critically ill patients between hospital intensive care units. These critically ill patients are characterized by specialized needs that include:

  • A higher level of intensive care.
  • Already on a number of medications via IV and infusions etc.
  • A higher expectation for deterioration en-route.
There is a four-year Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree program from the University of Toronto.
But, at this time, it is not mandatory.
So full disclosure, I left EMS a wee few years ago, and there’s been some distinct changes in what skills & scopes of practice fall under EMR’s, EMT’s, and what we used to call EMT-P (now our Primary Care Paramedic, which again was recently changed to just Paramedic - as to make ACP & CCP acronyms less confusing…ha!!)

I was probably mistaken in using the term ‘training pipeline’ and should have used the term ‘employment pipeline’ instead…



So in Alberta, our ‘training pipeline’ isn’t an issue.

To become a licensed EMR/EMT/PCP/ACP/CCP you have to do the corresponding course including practicums, successfully finish the course and any/all exams, and then be successful at the provincial written/practical exams. (Annual continuing education obviously being required to stay employed.)

(After paying the $700+ to take the provincial exams…if successful, you then also have to pay an extra few hundred $$ just to get the actual license!! The license isn’t provided after successfully passing the $700 exam you just paid to write. Successful at the exam? Great!! That’ll be another $250-ish for the card…)

But at the end of the day, anybody who does receive the Alberta College of Paramedics license is very qualified to perform the skills included within that scope.

(That scope changes slightly on an almost annual basis as a new Medical Director is rotated into the position within AHS, and each one likes EMS to do/not do things slightly differently based on their own preferences)


Also in Alberta, I don’t know if that same saying of “If know one service, that’s just it. You know one service” really applies to EMS.

Police services, absolutely. It’s easy to see a difference in work culture between Edmonton Police Service, and Calgary/Lethbridge/Camrose/RCMP, etc because they all are different services with different leadership, seperated by respectable geographic distance, etc.

But with Alberta Health Services, all EMS falls under the province.

So while some shift leaders are better than others, and some station chiefs/managers are better than others, the policies both external & internal are the same province wide.




What I was meaning the other night about ‘pipelines’ in EMS terms - your hiring/employment process seems much more organized & straightforward.

You hire recruit classes, we run orientations every few weeks that can have 2 or 3, or maybe 8 or 13 people 🤷🏼‍♂️ (Those orientations are about specific policies, how to do the appropriate paperwork (paper & digital), how to use CADS, a review of EVOC, as well as meeting & getting familiar with hospital staff, procedures (where to go once we arrived with patient/who to talk to, etc etc)

(There’s enough of a difference just between Calgary & Edmonton zones regarding incoming patients at hospital, it’s worth going over)




In the end…

- The training is good training, and anybody employed by Alberta EMS is extremely capable of doing their job very well

- As an organization, it couldn’t plan its way out of a wet paper bag. Employment with EMS was a disorganized disaster (we’re always hiring for a reason…)

(For example we would hire casuals & have a call list a mile long, but they’d never actually call any of them in for shifts. Even when a Code Red was clearly pending…)

(Or people would apply via the AHS HR website and never be contacted, no matter how many positions they’d apply for. They wouldn’t even make it to the interview stage - all the while Code Reds were becoming common, and publically were screaming for more EMS members…and still are.)




Running recruit classes sounds like a logical way to stabilize hiring, ensure members are familiar with some equipment prior to arriving at their posting/station (little specific quirks of different patient lifts, stretchers, etc) and I would think stabilize that profession as a whole out here

The ad-hoc way of what AHS has been doing over the last few years can’t be sustainable. (I’d assume anyway)


Special units are filled internally and have their own training pipelines here also
 
Thank-you! That is very informative. Was not expecting so much detail.

Big difference in Alberta vs Ontario billing.

Alberta residents:

  • $250 if a patient is not transported, or
  • $385 if a patient is transported
An additional $200 is charged to a patient who is a non-resident of Alberta, whether the patient is transported or not.

That's nice. A third-party Call Originator. Someone you don't even know. You refuse to go. Billed $450 just to say hello and goodbye to an Alberta crew! :)

Ontario residents are charged $45. Only if they are transported.

You can go from Kenora to Ottawa for $45.

No transport = no charge. It's free.

( Understood that many of us have private insurance, in addition to provincial health insurance. )
 
MB is about 300-350 with a mileage rate as well - uncool if you're in a rural community and nearest hospital in 30km or more away. At least if we have to transfer you to another facility (higher level of care or specialty not available), the province picks up the tab.

I have ambulance on my Blue Cross.
 
At least if we have to transfer you to another facility (higher level of care or specialty not available), the province picks up the tab.

I have ambulance on my Blue Cross.

Same in Ontario, no charge for inter-facility transfer by air or land ambulance.

And, of course, no transport = no charge.

We also did "Courtesy Calls" for free.

Courtesy Call - Some people may not be injured, but require help.

Some people really pushed the envelope with their definitions of "help".

Others were just lonely.

It's funny, but the "courtesy calls" I remember most. Because you got to know your "regulars" in the community.

By 2023 standards, the things we did for people back in the day would seem inconceivable/ unbelievable now.

But, customer service was a big thing in the old days.

I have ambulance on my Manulife.

Allowable expenses for professional ambulance service in Canada for transportation by surface routes and/or air to the nearest eligible hospital which has adequate facilities for the treatment of the sickness or injury.
 
In Missouri (and possibly other states), a tow truck can display red & blue lights and use a siren when responding to 'an emergency'.
I can't imagine.

That's how they roll in Missouri.

Bet the Heavy Rescue 400-series highway and municipal expressway guys would like to as well. :)

Ron Pratt running Code 3 with his red and blues activated in his "Tator" ( Rotator ), and a Federal "screaming Q" siren salvaged from a Cadillac Miller-Meteor ambulance.

Had to keep your windows UP when the Q was on! Lots of noise complaints from pedestrians and local residents. Really "bounceed" off the sky-scrapers.

Also, interesting to see Ron bang-shifting the Tator.
 
Gotta go easy on the brakes...

$45 million settlement with City of New Haven, Connecticut taxpayers.


Ouch.

Putting a seatbelt on your prisoners isn’t being charitable; it’s protecting your own ass.
 
Some are comparing it with the late Freddie Gray, in Baltimore.

$6.4 million settlement with the family.

The officers did not secure Gray inside the van while driving to the police station. The medical investigation found that Gray had sustained the injuries while in transport.
 
Bet the Heavy Rescue 400-series highway and municipal expressway guys would like to as well.
Sorry, for some reason I missed this post.

From what I've observed growing up in and around Toronto, as well as being a supervisor at a Toronto-area highway patrol detachment, I'm not convinced a lot of TT operators are worthy of driver's licences let alone the added authority to operate like an emergency vehicle.

But maybe it's just me.
 
Sorry, for some reason I missed this post.

From what I've observed growing up in and around Toronto, as well as being a supervisor at a Toronto-area highway patrol detachment, I'm not convinced a lot of TT operators are worthy of driver's licences let alone the added authority to operate like an emergency vehicle.

But maybe it's just me.
I can't believe (I can ,just not sure why they thought this was a responsible use of lights and sirens) he used lights and sirens to respond to a auger stuck in a guard rail.
 
I can't believe (I can ,just not sure why they thought this was a responsible use of lights and sirens) he used lights and sirens to respond to a auger stuck in a guard rail.
I've seen cops (mostly young) do a lot similar in similarly benign circumstances.
 
I think attitude has a lot to do with safe operation of emergency vehicles. Especially in an urban environment.

Traffic congestion in the city I worked grew increasingly severe year after year. Just got to relax, and go with the flow.

Also, knowing what you and your vehicle can, and can not, do. Passenger comfort and safety is the priority.

As I moved from Class F to Class CZ vehicles there was a learning curve that required patience. practice and experience. It takes time.
 
Like NDHQ, EMS was there to’help’…

 
Too many fatalities involving emergency vehicles.

According to the U.S. National Safety Council, in 2021,

Police vehicles accounted for the most deaths (135), followed by ambulances (39), and fire trucks (24).
 
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