Nurse 911 system in Niagara leads to less need for emergency ambulance responses

Niagara Emergency Medical Services began including nurses to handle 911 calls in 2019, one of only three in Canada to do so, says Marty Mako, commander of mobile integrated health care with Niagara EMS. A rare 911 dispatch service in Ontario's Niagara Region that includes nurses as part of the team responding to emergency calls has resulted in fewer ambulances rushing to scenes, say program staff.

The Emergency Communication Nurse System program started as part of a larger shift to "alleviate the pressures on what's already an overtaxed emergency system,"Niagara EMS is one of five services in the world accredited for the use of the system, and it's the first to ever be re-accredited by U.S.-based International Academies of Emergency Dispatch, according to Mako.

"We took a leap of faith," Agler said, adding that doing triage over the phone was challenging to start, but "it's been a wonderful change" for emergency response.When a 911 call comes in, dispatchers ask questions to determine the seriousness of the emergency. If they find it's safe for the caller to wait, they transfer the call to a nurse for a secondary triage, Agler said.

In Niagara, when a 911 call comes in, dispatchers ask questions to determine the seriousness of the emergency. If they find it's safe for the caller to wait, they transfer the call to a nurse. in combination with emergency room experience and regimented questions to "build a picture and profile of what the patient looks like as if they're sitting next to us."

"We do have our taxi program that we've implemented," she said. "If it's safe to do so, we pay for them to go to the hospital or to the walk-in clinic by taxi — that's all covered by our program here."Mako said Niagara EMS has triaged more than 15,000 calls with the system since it started and more than 20 per cent of them did not require an ambulance or paramedic.

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