Medavie, an ambulance operator in Lloydminster, educated Rotarians at the Oct. 27 Rotary Club of Lloydminster meeting on its operations.
Of note, the service operates five units in Lloydminster. Offering two basic life support teams on the Saskatchewan side and three units on the Alberta side, two advanced life support and one basic life support.
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Terry Boettcher, Medavie general manager, says their vision is to be a trusted health solutions provider.
“In Northeast Alberta, we generally provide ambulance service, which is 911 service and interfacility transport services,” he said. “Across the country there’s over 8,500 employees and doing north of 525,000 emergency calls a year.”
When it comes to matters in the Border City, dual licensing is an obstacle the provider looks to navigate with Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and Alberta Health Services (AHS).
“Because we have a contract with SHA and AHS, we are under that requirement to carry both licences,” said Boettcher. “All of our staff who work in the City of Lloydminster, who are assigned to work on our station here, are dual-licensed.
“You have to get a Saskatchewan licence from the Saskatchewan College of Paramedics or if you’re going the other way, you get a licence from the Alberta College of Paramedics.”
The requirement causes the paramedics to need further training with the respective college.
“Really the burden for the paramedic is the training burden,” said Boettcher. “I think it’s five additional courses that help to secure that Saskatchewan licence.”
While training and licensing is required in both provinces, paramedics operating in Lloydminster follow a single health protocol.
“There’s an agreement between the colleges of paramedics that paramedics serving the City of Lloydminster will follow the Alberta medical protocols,” he said. “It really helps with managing the risk because our paramedics don’t have to remember two different protocols.”
Some duplication exists due to the intricacy of operating on a provincial border.
“The Alberta College and the Saskatchewan College require a slightly different approach to the professional liability insurance that the paramedic has to carry,” said Boettcher. “They have two liability insurance policies.”
If it came to a preference of choosing one college over the other, Boettcher says it makes sense to go with the Alberta College of Paramedics.
“I think the one that makes sense to me is the Alberta College,” he said. “I say that because the agreement I talked about earlier has our paramedics operating under the Alberta medical control protocols. All of our protocols, all of our training, it’s all under the umbrella of the Alberta system.”
Recruiting and retaining employees is another difficulty due to the border in Lloydminster.
“It also restricts the number of people that can be eligible to work in the city, so it’s a risk for how we can staff our resources and bring that care,” said Boettcher.
Medavie operates in Northeastern Alberta serving Fort Saskatchewan, Lamont, Andrew, Two Hills, Saddle Lake First Nations, St. Paul, Elk Point, Vermillion and Lloydminster. On the Saskatchewan side, they would respond halfway up to Onion Lake, around Lashburn and in south in the area of Macklin.
They do interfacility transfers, a service the Focus Society for Support Services also offers.
“Focus van in Vermilion is a project probably ahead of its time,” said Boettcher. “They saw the trend of losing ambulance service from the community and they decided to take action and put in a program that would deliver that transport service to people who didn’t need clinical services.”
Monthly, Medavie sees more calls on the Alberta side than they do on the Saskatchewan side. They respond on average to 225 emergency calls and 71 inner facility transfers on the Alberta side of the border and 45 emergency calls and 20 inner facility transfers on the Sask. side.
In terms of response differences, population can play a key role.
“The other key point in there is the population base. On the Saskatchewan side of Lloydminster, I think there’s around 9,000, probably, of our 33,000 total population,” said Brad Nixon, Medavie operations manager. “So, there will be a slightly lower expected call volume on the Saskatchewan side.”
Boettcher says with the advanced life-care support unit on the Alberta side, they would be coming across to the Sask. side to provide that service.
Medavie also participates in community events, having attended 36 in the last year.
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