Montreal-area paramedics have a new dispatch system. They fear it is putting patients at risk

Many Montreal-area paramedics say the hassles range from scouring crowded screens to get vital information in the new computer-aided dispatch system, to racing to a caller’s home only to find they have already been taken to hospital. (CAD) His ambulance is plagued with problems – and he fears it is putting patients at risk.

urge-santeThe company, which provides ambulance services in Montreal and Laval, launched the new computer system in May. The program connects dispatchers with paramedics on the road in real time, providing them with patient information, addresses, directions and more.

Some front-line workers say the transition has been difficult, and they worry it could impact their ability to reach patients in emergencies.

CBC News spoke to five paramedics who say they have been dispatched to respond to 911 calls unnecessarily — either because the call had already been handled by another team and was showing up again in the system or because multiple ambulances were dispatched to the same call.

Two paramedics described incidents where they were preparing to force open the door because they were not getting any response from the patient, but then realized the call was a duplicate.

urge-sante And the union representing paramedics says they have had no reports of doors accidentally breaking down.

CBC is not naming the paramedics because a clause in their contract prevents them from “speak bad about their employer or damage their reputation in any way”, their union confirms, and they fear repercussions for speaking out.

Paramedics said these duplicate calls used to occur occasionally with the old system but they increased in the first few months after the new model was implemented. Some people told us this is still happening over the past few weeks.

Union representative Charles Duff Murdoch said, “The union fully recognizes that (CAD) in its current state is causing significant delays and all we can see from the reports is that we are being dispatched by many different paramedics.” Syndicat du Prehospitalier (FSSS-CSN).

“If an ambulance is dispatched twice to the same call, obviously another ambulance that could be used elsewhere is causing delays to other calls.”

He says these glitches make his already busy days even more challenging.

urge-sante Insisted that there has been no impact on patient care since CAD was implemented, and said that “growing pains” can be expected with every new system.

“We are making sure that double calls do not occur. They have occurred in the beginning. We are six months into the implementation of our new system. So we are still in the learning curve,” said Jean-Marie Dufresne, operations supervisor. Insistence-Sante.

He said the system is “in development” and new features should be able to prevent duplicates in the future.

When data was sought on ambulance response times, urge-sante Said it was not readily available and advised CBC to make an access to information request.

Backup methods and handwritten notes

Murdoch points to other concerns raised by union members, including alleged instances when the CAD system failed to capture the location of ambulances via GPS during an entire shift. He says if dispatchers can’t see an ambulance on a map, it can be difficult for them to decide who to send to a call.

“You’ll either have ambulances that you’ve completely forgotten about or have to call them frequently just to see, ‘Okay, what’s your location?'”

Murdoch says paramedics have also reported receiving a new emergency call in their ambulance several times when they were with a patient and were not supposed to be available.

Three paramedics told CBC they worked entire shifts where the CAD system completely shut down and, due to the high volume of calls, they couldn’t find time to fix it.

In those situations, he said he had to rely on backup methods, such as communicating with dispatchers via radio or phone and writing down addresses on paper.

Murdoch confirmed that the union had received similar reports, particularly in the first month after the new system was implemented.

Dufresne’s urge-sante Hit back, saying it believes reports of the CAD system being unavailable for an entire shift are “not accurate.”

He said the organization’s GPS system is “very up to date” and the dispatch center is able to “see all the ambulances and vehicles that need to be seen.”

He says when choosing an ambulance to send to a call, dispatchers take into account other factors besides distance, including the priority of the call and where the paramedics are on their shift.

Most paramedics CBC spoke to said the system is not user-friendly, making their jobs difficult when they are on the go. Some people said they often had to scroll through a crowded interface to find a long address or the location of other emergency services deployed on the same call.

The majority also said they did not receive adequate training.

“They were kind of thrown in and had to figure it out on their own,” Murdoch said, adding that this was a major complaint from members.

He acknowledges that newly hired paramedics who have never worked with the old system seem to be more comfortable with the new system but “there are still going to be frustrations and delays.”

Murdoch says the union brings forward its members’ concerns during regular meetings with the public organization.

“We see that urge-sante, With the company, they have had many updates related to (CAD) so we see that they are trying to improve it,” he said.

,Mistakes are expected,’ urge-sante They say

Dufresne says the previous system was more than 10 years old and wasn’t able to make the necessary updates.

Public documents also show the new system is the first step in a province-wide effort to standardize all computer-aided ambulance dispatch programs used in Quebec into a single system.

He says the program has cost more than $6 million so far and regular updates and maintenance are set to cost about $320,000 per year.

“As far as any new software we install, glitches are to be expected. They were anticipated to some extent, and measures were taken and are still being taken to ensure that these types of situations do not happen again,” Dufresne said, referring to calls coming into the system again.

He says backup systems are in place, such as different ways to communicate with paramedics if there is a problem with the dispatch program “to make sure we don’t miss any calls.”

Dufresne also says urge-sante It has a team monitoring the computer system 24/7 and constantly collaborating with the supplier of the program to fix any technical problems if they arise.

He said the organization provides ongoing training, conducts briefings and has documentation available on their online employee portal for paramedics.

CBC contacted EMERES INC, the company that developed the system, for comment. They responded that “As a matter of policy, EMERES does not comment on client specific environments or issues” and referred us to urge-sante,

Last year the company was awarded a contract worth more than $25 million to develop a new CAD system for the Montreal police and Montreal fire departments following a call for tenders, according to public documents.

Sainte-Quebec did not respond to a request for comment.