Technology making life easier for paramedics and patients in Renfrew

By Mike Vlasveld

Renfrew County residents are benefiting from a new partnership between its local paramedics and Quebec company Prehos, which specializes is pre-hospital technology.

“Prehos enables us to have the patient's electronic health record on hand and to securely collect data in real-time without the need for paper,” said Michael Nolan, Chief of the Paramedic Service for the County of Renfrew and President of the CSA Technical Committee on Community Paramedicine.  “Patient care visits are also a lot more efficient. By centralising information, this type of technology reduces the number of times we need to ask patients the same questions. It also reduces the risk of problems caused by data entry errors.”

Paramedics in Renfrew visit at-risk or socially isolated patients in their homes and work proactively, providing care and referring them to the appropriate services. It's an approach which has reduced 911 calls by an average of 23.4%, it's also diminished the number of emergency trips to hospitals and significantly decreased the cost of health care services.

“Providing such services in the largest county in Ontario is a real challenge for paramedics,” added Nolan. “By giving us the capacity to work remotely and by optimizing the deployment of resources on the ground, Prehos allows our paramedics to dedicate more time to caring for their patients. They no longer need to meet together at the start of their shift before heading to their respective communities nor make the same trip back at the end of their day. Since the Prehos system was set up, there has been an increase of about 40% in our teams’ productivity.”

Implementation of the Prehos solution began last winter. 

The company said the County of Renfrew contributed greatly to the operation's success. By allocating human resources, it explained that the technological development team was able to benefit from instantly available expertise. 

The Prehos solution now helps to provided care to nearly 1,000 patients in Renfrew County, an area the size of Connecticut.

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