Greater Sudbury’s Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care Pilot program is fully operational, and a team of paramedics has performed 358 home visits to seniors’ homes.
Of these home visits conducted since May, 83 were considered “just-in-time” cases that would have otherwise been 911 calls. In 87 per cent of these cases, the patient avoided having to visit an emergency department.
These are “incredible numbers,” Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti said during this week’s emergency services committee meeting, offering his “kudos” to Melissa Roney and others behind the effort.
“They’re getting care right at their own place, which is remarkable.”
During the meeting, Roney, deputy chief of Greater Sudbury’s paramedic services, offered the committee an update on the program, which received $6.5 million in provincial funding to operate over 3.25 years and is now at its nine-month mark.
The first few months involved setting the program up and the first patients were assisted in May.
Patients include seniors who are either on the city’s long-term care waitlist or soon to be eligible for long-term care. The waitlist for long-term care is currently more than 600 people, of whom 10 per cent have been designated “priority/crisis” and are no longer able to cope at home, according to a report by Roney.
The Community Paramedicine program targets these seniors with 24/7 ongoing support by a team of community paramedics
Greater Sudbury was one of 54 municipalities to receive provincial funding for this program.
Its startup was a bit slow due to competing priorities related to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s now running full-steam ahead, Roney said, with 193 patients enrolled and 25 new patients being added to the list every week. With a long-term care home waitlist of 600, she said there’s still a lot of work to do.
“Their needs are great and we’re doing things as quickly as possible,” she said.
The team includes 10 full-time community paramedics, one administrative support staff, one clinical lead and some relief staff to prevent closures of the program so it’s able to operate 24/7.
“This is a service that’s provided even at night, so when seniors are up and they have an issue that can escalate, other than calling 911 they have the option of the non-urgent issue being brought forward to their community paramedic,” Roney said.
“These folks want face-to-face time. They prefer to see a person real-life and in their homes to answer their questions and provide an assessment and feedback rather than virtual.”
In addition to the community paramedics that form the core of this effort, they’ve also onboarded Dr. Joanne Clarke, a geriatrician with Health Sciences North - North East Specialized Geriatric Centre, whose team provides 24/7 on-call support.
Greater Sudbury’s Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care Pilot program is fully funded by the province to March 30, 2024.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
