C4-b The Couchiching FHT and County of Simcoe EPIC Program

Theme 4. Strengthening partnerships

Presentation Details

  • Date: Thursday, October 26, 2017
  • Concurrent Session C
  • Time: 8:30am-9:15am
  • Room:
  • Style: Presentation (information provided to audience, with opportunity for audience to ask question)
  • Focus: Practical (e.g. Presentation on how to implement programs and/or practices in the team environment)
  • Target Audience: Leadership (ED, clinical lead, board chair, board member, etc.), Clinical providers, Representatives of stakeholder/partner organizations
Learning Objectives
  1. Participants will learn about the Couchiching FHT and County of Simcoe EPIC program, how the program was created, funded, and opportunities to create this in their FHT.
  2. Participants will also learn the early results of the program.
Summary/Abstract Initiatives aimed at reducing Emergency Department (ED) wait times and improved community health initiatives are major priorities in Canada. Paramedics are a highly trained mobile resource able to assess and treat acute and chronic patients, and can apply their clinical experience to potentially intervene and prevent unnecessary ED visits and hospitalizations for patients with DM, CHF and COPD.  While the primary purpose of this program is to improve response times to high priority calls in Ramara & Oro-Medonte, when paramedics aren’t responding to emergency calls, they will be completing home visits with referred patients. It is our belief that we can decrease ED visits and length of hospital stay as a result of the Community Paramedicine home visits.  The Community Paramedicine Home Visit (CP-HV) Program commenced April 18th, 2016 with a patient Roster of 57 patients in Orillia and Severn.  All patients in the program have a chronic COPD/HF condition or a diabetes diagnosis. Due to additional capacity, the decision was made to expand on the initial cohort of 57 patients for this project.  An additional 34 patients were identified with initial home visits starting Tuesday, September 13, 2016.  As requests are made, additional patients are added, while deceased patients removed and as of January 31, 2017, the total patient roster is 93. Presenters
  • CFHT