Peel Patients Benefit from Gold Standard
of Paramedic Care
Your chances of surviving a heart, stroke or respiratory emergency just got better. Peel Paramedics are involved in world-class pre-hospital care and research that is saving more Peel lives than ever before.
Better technology
In 2007 Peel Regional Paramedic Services (PRPS) began using defibrillator technology that gives real-time feedback about how CPR is being performed on patients suffering cardiac arrest outside of the hospital. In the last three years, 66 more people in Peel region survived an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest thanks to improved technology and CPR quality – putting Peel’s survival rates among the highest in North America.
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| Peel Paramedic Jolene Fonseca is reunited with STEMI heart attack patient Ed Skrlj. Thanks to the new program, Ed’s heart surgery happened within 54 minutes of calling 911. |
Collaborating for best results
In August 2009, Peel Paramedics and Trillium Health Centre began working together to provide a state-of-the-art program for a type of heart attack known as a STEMI (ST-elevated Myocardial Infarction). Paramedics on the scene diagnose a STEMI and consult with a cardiologist at Trillium Health Centre to arrange for an immediate angioplasty (the opening of a blocked vessel causing a heart attack) at Trillium. For the patient to receive the most benefit, this must occur within the first 90 minutes of the heart attack.
Since the program started, Peel paramedics were involved in 24 of the 34 STEMIs transported to Trillium. The average time of paramedics diagnosing and transporting a patient to a cardiologist who restored blood flow was 68.5 minutes - well below the program's 90-minute goal and among the best results in the world.
Paramedics are also critical to a stroke protocol that ensures eligible patients are transported to a stroke centre as soon as possible. Recent studies have shown that stroke patients treated within three and a half hours stand a greater chance of survival and better outcomes when treated with "clot-busting drugs" early in their stroke. In 2009 alone, over 950 stroke patients were diagnosed and taken to the Trillium stroke centre within the critical timeframe.
Helping patients breathe easier
Last year, PRPS became the largest service in Canada to use a pre-hospital patient-care option that is now a standard of care across the province. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) is used to help critically ill patients with serious shortness of breath due to a variety of heart and lung conditions. With the use of CPAP, we are seeing less people requiring intubation - a more aggressive approach to airway management. In just eight months more than 60 people have benefited from the treatment.
We are very fortunate to have Dr. Sheldon Cheskes, Peel Paramedic Medical Director at the Sunnybrook Osler Centre for Pre-hospital Care, lead these initiatives. Peel Paramedics have earned the trust and confidence of our health-care community which means that you are getting quicker access to the best care possible.
To learn more about CPR, signs of heart attack and stroke, or Peel Regional Paramedic Services, visit peelems.ca or call 905-791-7800, ext. 3956.
In an emergency, always call 9-1-1
