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The London-area paramedic service is joining an Ontario pilot project to allow routine diagnostic testing in long-term care homes, starting with both London and Middlesex County’s civic homes for the aged.
Designed to help take the strain off hospital emergency departments and the 911 system, the program allows paramedics with the Middlesex-London Paramedic Service to deliver some essential diagnostic services – such as urine analysis, blood testing and ultrasound scans – directly in long-term care homes, rather than having to take patients to hospitals.
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Ontario’s health ministry is providing $500,000 to operate the pilot project in the London area. It will be rolled out first at London’s Dearness Home and Middlesex County’s Strathmere Lodge in Strathroy-Caradoc.
Besides reducing pressure on hospitals, the move means less physical and emotional stress for long-term care residents who will no longer need to be transported for the tests, officials said on Monday.
Each year, local paramedics handle more than 2,500 calls from long-term care homes.
The routine testing will be done to help diagnose and treat conditions ranging from chronic kidney disease to diabetes, marking what one official calls a “a significant step forward” to efficiently deliver diagnostic care with minimal interruption.
“By bringing these vital services into long-term care homes, we’re reducing hospital visits, improving patient outcomes and ensuring our community’s most vulnerable residents receive the care they need, where they need it most,” said Adam Bennett of Middlesex-London Paramedic Services.
Call volumes for paramedics have grown in London in recent years, as they have in much of Ontario, sometimes causing bottlenecks in the system when ambulances and their crews are tied down at hospitals, waiting to hand off patients to backlogged emergency departments and unable to respond to other calls during the so-called “offload delays.”
The pilot project is an expansion of Ontario’s Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care program, which provides care for seniors in their own homes before they’re admitted to long-term care centres.
Both London and Middlesex County officials applauded the move to allow routine diagnostics by paramedics in the homes for the aged, saying they expect it to improve health outcomes for residents and reduce the need for hospital transfers.
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