A mobile paramedic service which proactively brings health care services to some of Winnipeg’s more vulnerable individuals hopes to soon expand its small fleet of vehicles.
Emergency Paramedics In the Community – EPIC – was born in 2014 from a need to cut down 911 calls coming from Main Street Project.
“We had a profound number of emergencies there every single day,” Ryan Sneath, assistant chief paramedic of operations, with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service told 680 CJOB.
“So having the presence of a paramedic in that community, they were able to meet their needs and connect them with more appropriate resources rather than 911.”
The program soon had a noticeable effect, with ambulance transports from the facility dropping by 54 per cent, according to Sneath.
“It’s obviously a much more cost-effective way,” Sneath said.
“It is, I’ll say, an upstream approach, so rather than waiting to react all the time, which is typically what 911 is, this made us proactive.”
Additionally, Sneath said paramedics are better able to understand and address a patient’s underlying health issues, get them directly to the resources they require or might not have gotten at all otherwise, and also builds trust with the health care system.
“We see those small impacts every single day. They may seem small to us but they’re massive impacts for one individual’s life.”
A service which began humbly several years ago with one little SUV grew to two earlier this year, and Sneath said they now plan to increase capacity to five vehicles.
EPIC has four focus areas: frequent 911 users, at-risk individuals, commonly visited addresses, and also lab and diagnostic follow-up for the emergency department.
Sneathn said he also believes there should be an alternative to 911, using other provinces as a model.
“That is something I think we need to look towards here in Manitoba and in Winnipeg.”