00:00 Trudi heard the thud of a person falling on the floor, and entered the room of her fellow student at the University of Northern BC to find Rob unconscious at the foot of his bed. It was a medical emergency so she immediately called 911, as all students had been advised during orientation. E-Comm started the incident timer (mm:ss), determined the nature of the emergency, and promptly transferred the call to Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Helen Hays, a retired paramedic, was logged in from her home in North Vancouver as an Emergency Medicine Specialist and picked up the call on her EMS console.
00:30 Helen introduced herself and asked Trudi if she could safely administer first aid until first responders could attend the scene. She responded yes but had no first aid experience. No problem, Helen would walk her through it but time was of the essence; 30 precious seconds had elapsed since receiving the call.
Trudi was now an Immediate Responder, and part of the healthcare team. Helen had Trudi put her phone on speaker. Comms established. Helen told Trudi to run her hands under Robert to check for bleeding, and then put her face next to Robertt’s mouth to check for breathing. No blood but no breath. Helen started up “Staying Alive,” and successfully guided Trudi through CPR to the beat of the music.
01:00 Patient stabilized
Helen geolocated the incident on the EMS console, confirmed with Trudi that it was in room 201 Neyoh Residence, and then connected and dispatched a Fire Rescue Team from Prince George FD Station #3, the nearest available first responders, 6 minutes away. Location and incident information was downloaded to the navigation and information system in the emergency vehicle. Fire Rescue could now communicate with Helen and Trudi, review incident information enroute, and develop a game plan to deliver care.
Helen asked Trudi for the patient’s full name and home address. Trudi said his name was Robert Fulton and Rob was from the Vancouver area. Helen asked if another person at the scene could take a picture of Rob and text it to 911EMS.bc.ca. The EMS system received the photo, matched it to Robert James Fulton (21M) from Burnaby, and found his patient information in the provincial Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system. Both EMS and Fire Rescue could now review Rob’s patient information. Rob had no serious health conditions.
09:00 Fire Rescue attended the scene, and took over CPR from Trudi. They administered Naloxone, and Rob regained conciousness.
09:05 Ambulance Services arrived, and took over from Fire Rescue. Rob told the Paramedic that he’d been at a party the night before, and decided to try some drugs the morning after. The Paramedic added this information to the patient’s EMR. Rob was taken to University Hospital of Northern British Columbia, 9 minutes away.
25:00 Admitted to acute care
Rob was admitted to the Emergency Department. The Paramedic entered incident information into the patient EMR to complete the handoff, and returned to their station.
35:00 Incident closed. Helen had beeen available throughout the 35 minute incident to coordinate resources. EMS made the best use of available resources and expertise, healthcare was provided as quickly as possible, there were no breaks in care, and the patient achieved the best possible outcome.
How do we get here? Check out Team-based Healthcare for Everyone, Everywhere for the latest step in a BC Health System transformation project that can bring this story to life.
greg steer
Enterprise Coach
