Paramedic Services Week - System partners who help us help you

Today in Paramedic Services Week we cover the wider community of emergency medical care and response colleagues who help us help you. Frontenac Paramedics are an important part of a province-wide coordinated and integrated emergency response and healthcare system. Although this week is about paramedics, we rely on a wide array of system partners, and they rely on us.

Consider this: When you dial 911 for medical emergency, the call is answered by our colleagues at the Kingston Central Ambulance Communications Centre (CACC). They collect information and dispatch Frontenac Paramedics crews to the scene.

Kingston Central Ambulance Communications Centre Communications Officers answer 911 calls for medical emergency and alert and dispatch paramedics. In Ontario, the closest available paramedic crew to any given emergency is alerted by CACC and moves toward the scene. This means that if a Frontenac Paramedics crew happens to be the closest available to an emergency medical call in a neighbouring jurisdiction, they will respond. Similarly, if there’s a large emergency with many patients needing simultaneous care or otherwise a very high demand for emergency medical service here in Frontenac, paramedic crews from neighbouring services may respond.

Frontenac Paramedics’ home jurisdiction for example borders those of Lennox-Addington Paramedic Services, County of Renfrew Paramedic Service, Lanark County Paramedic Service, and Leeds & Grenville Paramedic Service.

Kingston Health Science Centre (KHSC) is Frontenac Paramedics’ base hospital and the lead trauma hospital for South East Ontario. Frontenac Paramedics treat patients under the medical authority and oversight of KHSC medical staff. Paramedics rely on nurses and emergency physicians to receive patients in the emergency department at Kingston General Hospital so paramedics can get back on the road. Paramedic services from across the region regularly treat and transport patients to KHSC in Kingston.

Ambulances from Lanark, Frontenac Paramedics, and Leeds & Grenville at the emergency department area at Kingston General Hospital.
When time is of the essence, the most critically ill of Frontenac Paramedics’ patients may be treated and transported by our paramedic colleagues at Ornge Air Ambulance.

If a patient is in a difficult-to-reach area, requires extraction, or is reported to be unconscious, fire and rescue teams from Kingston Fire and Rescue, South Frontenac Fire and Rescue, Central Frontenac Fire and Rescue, North Frontenac Fire Department, Wolfe Island Fire and Rescue, Howe Island Fire and Rescue, or any other nearby fire departments are dispatched as well.

Members of East Region Ontario Provincial Police and Kingston Police play a critical role in protecting paramedics’ safety while on the road and on scene, securing the area, managing any road traffic or crowds, and conducting any subsequent criminal investigation. Tactical paramedics may also be embedded with police during high-risk law enforcement and crisis activities.

Those above are just a few system partners among the too many to mention here that help us help you. County, city, and township officials; military and Coast Guard; personnel at large institutions and organizations across the region; social service providers; and many more may be involved.

And finally and perhaps most importantly, you and every private citizen helps us help you by knowing CPR and some first aid, how and when to call 911, what to do when you see paramedics on the road, how to prepare your patient for when paramedics arrive, and ultimately by managing your own risks and looking out for your family, friends, neighbours, and strangers.