Community Paramedicine program thriving in Addington Highlands

Craig Bakay | Jun 26, 2024

Paul Osborn, Superintendent Responsible for Community Paramedicine in L & A County, started his career in Denbigh. As such, he has a special affinity for the “healthcare inequities that are in remote areas.”

He was addressing Addington Highlands Council June 18 in Denbigh to update them on the Community Paramedicine program.

Osborn began by defining what Community Paramedicine is.

“It’s collaborative healthcare providers,” he said. “Including health promotion, illness prevention and patient assessment in patients’ homes. We keep families in their homes, enhance healthcare capacity and alleviate strain on the healthcare system.”

They do this through a series of home visits, while being embedded with a family healthcare team to ensure they can reach as many of their clients as possible.

“(The program) provides value to the system,” he said. “For example, it costs $8.40 a day per client as opposed to a long-term care bed at $1,500 per day.”

In the last quarter, community paramedics have made 219 home care visits providing 241 hours of direct care to 36 clients in the area, he said. In the entire County, they made 836 home visits providing more than 1,000 hours of home care. Addington Highlands accounts for 22 per cent of their home visits.

“This is in addition to any clinics or mobile setups that we would have,” he said.

And, they do more than give needles and such.

“We do look beyond,” he said. “Our rule of thumb is if you haven’t spent at least half and hour in the home, you haven’t spent enough time there. The health care system can be difficult to navigate (and while) we don’t direct any of this stuff, we do engage our community partners at social services and do joint visits,” he said.

This can include referrals and program outreach, he said.

They have four full-time community paramedics, two temporary full-time (who recently became permanent) as well as one full-time superintendent and they’re interviewing for an administrative position.

The program began in January of 2020 when they were focused on basic life support and it underwent an expansion in 2021 to include point of care urinalysis, blood analysis and remote patient monitoring.

Through their program Outreach with Prince Edward Lennox & Addington Social Services, they also hold weekly clinics, wellness checks, medical assessments, vital signs, and opioid education.

“I certainly know that in Addington Highlands we’ve been proponents of community paramedicine for a long time and have nothing but good things to say about how it’s evolved and the direction it will continue to evolve in,” said Dep. Reeve Tony Fritsch. “I have no suggestions for improvement.”

“Just keep up the good work,” said Reeve Henry Hogg.

Snowmobile Trail approval

Council gave its approval for the Mazinaw Powerline Snowmobile club to enter into a memorandum of understanding to use a portion of Township property. Because of the land’s proximity to the Cloyne waste site, North Frontenac requested the trail be signed with “stay on trail” and if any obvious trail leads to the waste site, it should be closed in some manner to avoid users going to the waste site.

Active building season

There is strong month over month growth in building activity, CBO David Twiddy reported.

“This is somewhat surprising given the economic conditions and prevailing winds regarding construction costs,” he said.

Grading

Grading is continuing throughout both wards, Roads and Waste Manager Brett Reavie reported. Depending on the weather, dust suppressant application should be completed by July 15.

Culverts were replaced on Hughes Landing Road and they are now edging and patching to allow for surface treatment in early July.

Maple Leaf

Council agreed to help promote (on its social media) the Land of Lakes Lions Club Human Maple Leaf activity July 1 at 10 a.m. during Canada Day festivities at the Lions Club site.

“They’re trying to get about 200 people and this is Council’s invitation to participate,” said CAO/Clerk-Treasurer Christine Reed. “And if you need any added incentive, there’s going to be strawberry shortcake.”