New dispatch system for Ottawa paramedics to come online next month
CTV
A new dispatching system for the Ottawa Paramedic Service will be coming online next month, after numerous calls over the decades to improve how ambulance dispatchers triage calls.
A new dispatching system for the Ottawa Paramedic Service will be coming online next month, after numerous calls over the decades to improve how ambulance dispatchers triage calls.
Ottawa paramedics have been under increasing pressure in recent years, with high numbers of "level zero" events, where there isn't a single ambulance available to respond to an urgent call, often attributed to lengthy offload delays at local hospitals. Demand for 911 services has also been on the rise in recent years.
Paramedics in Ottawa have been using a triage tool called the Dispatch Priority Card Index (DPCI), which was developed in the 1980s.
Now, a report prepared for the City of Ottawa's Emergency Preparedness and Protective Services Committee says the new dispatching system, called the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) will finally come online.
"The Medical Priority Dispatch System is expected to launch in the Ottawa Central Ambulance Communications Centre on April 10, 2024 and will serve more than 1.2 million residents across 10,000 square kilometres of eastern Ontario, including Ottawa, the United Counties of Prescott and Russell, the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry, and Cornwall," the report says.
The MPDS system is considered a superior call triage tool to the Dispatch Priority Card Index tool currently in use by the Ottawa Paramedic Service. It's been in use in Toronto since 1992. Other communities in the province, including Niagara Region, Mississauga, Kenora and Thunder Bay also use it. There have been calls to install the MPDS in all communications centres in the province, and representatives from Ottawa have been asking for it since before amalgamation.
According to the report, studies have shown that the MPDS is exceptionally good at detecting high acuity of illness or injury. Its algorithm is more accurate at detecting patient severity of illness or injury and it is better at determining which calls require a paramedic response with lights and siren. DPCI, on the other hand, frequently over-triages 9-1-1 calls.