Public meetings on emergency and urgent care scenarios

Jeff Green | Feb 18, 2015

It is 2:00 in the morning. Your child has a fever and the fever has spiked. You give the child some medication to control the fever but you are in a quandary. Should you sit with your child and see if the fever drops? Should you drive to the emergency department? Should you call 911 for an ambulance?

These kinds of dilemmas occur in all kinds of families; those with young children, elderly relatives, or a member who is chronically ill. It occurs for people who live alone or who are caring for a spouse or a parent.

The Rural Kingston Health Link is holding three public information sessions to talk about what options people have when they are in need of medical help and don't know where to turn.

Dr. Ken Edwards from the Emergency Department at Kingston General Hospital, Gale Chevalier from Frontenac Paramedic Services, and the staff of the Verona Medical Centre will be on hand at Trinity United Church in Verona next Tuesday, February 24, from 7 until 9 pm to talk about what is available and to listen to public concerns.

One of the concerns among those who provide emergency care is that over 50% of emergency room visits would be better dealt with through other means.

“There is a difference between urgent care and emergency care,” said Lynn Wilson, of the Rural Kingston Health Link.

This distinction has implications both in terms of costs for the emergency departments and land ambulance, and for patients, who might find themselves spending a sleepless night in the waiting room at KGH when they would be better off at home.

One example of an alternative to emergency room visits is the option to contact a doctor over the phone. By calling their local family health teams or family practice in Sydenham, Sharbot Lake, Northbrook or Tamworth after hours, patients from those clinics will be referred to Tele-Health Ontario, and through Tele-Health they can access an on-call doctor from one of the local clinics. Patients of the Verona clinic are directly referred to the on-call doctor.

Even if that doctor is not from their own clinic, the doctor will still have access to the patient's medical file, and can offer advice tailored to the patient's medical history.

All of the clinics also have extended-hour clinics throughout the week, during which time they accept patients from any of the other clinics in the region.

Frontenac Paramedic Services is developing a community paramedicine program, to make better use of the skills of paramedics in between emergency calls, and to help reduce unnecessary visits to the emergency room. They will be using the meetings to help them tailor their programs to local needs, and to help them avoid duplicating services that are offered by other providers.

For those who cannot attend the meeting in Verona on the 24th, similar meetings are scheduled for Sydenham on March 10 and Sharbot Lake on March 24.

The public meetings are meant to foster a two-way conversation. Those attending will be encouraged to share their own experiences and their ideas for how they could be better served.

For more information see the ad on page 2.