Paramedic Services is operated by the Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board which is responsible for the prehospital care and transportation of the sick and injured within the Districts of Manitoulin and Sudbury excluding the City of Greater Sudbury.

Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB Paramedic Services responds to over 9,000 calls each year. Our service is dispatched by Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins Central Ambulance Communication Centres (CACC) and our coverage area is approximately 42,850 sq. kms in size.

Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB Paramedic Services operates thirteen frontline ambulances from 12 different EMS base locations.

Our service employs approximately 75 full time Paramedics and 52 part time Paramedics. Our service is organized into South/West and North/East regions containing a total of twelve ambulance bases. The management team includes the Chief of Paramedic Services, Deputy Chief, Commander of Training as well as four Field Superintendent. Each Field Superintendent is responsible for the day to day operations and service delivery within each of our regions. Service delivery and all operations are ultimately the responsibility of the Chief of Paramedic Services who reports to the Chief Administrative Officer of the Board.

Quality Assurance

The goal of the quality assurance program is to improve the health of Paramedic Service patients, increase the quality of Paramedic Services, increase the efficiency of resources, and ensure that Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB Paramedic Services provides a MOHLTC standard of patient care.

We do this by maximizing efficiency and effectiveness through constant improvement. Constant improvement is made through quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement.

Quality planning

Quality planning is the initial design of programs based on meeting the needs of patient care. The planning is ongoing and fluid. Currently in place planning geared toward patient care needs involve:

• Recruitment and hiring program
• Orientation program
• Patient care performance review programs
• Equipment and vehicle maintenance programs
• Stakeholder planning
• MOHLTC key patient care performance criteria planning
• Quality control

Quality control involves monitoring systems and acting on items to ensure patient care levels are met. Examples of quality control involve:

• Patient care documentation audits
• Management evaluation of patient care skills
• Equipment and vehicle maintenance audits
• Investigations into inquiries, suggestions, and complaints
• Response time audits
  
  

Quality improvement

Quality improvement involves creating new programs to meet unprecedented levels of patient care. This improvement takes place by means of needs analysis and training programs to ensure that the needs of patients in our geographic area are always being studied, evaluated and acted upon.

An effective quality assurance program provides the public with confidence that they are being cared for by the MOHLTC established standard of care, with emphasis on constant improvement in order to meet patient care needs.