Last week, ambulance service leaders from across Canada gathered in Quebec City for their annual summit. The Coopérative des techniciens ambulanciers de la Montérégie (CETAM), represented at the event, received an award of excellence for its community paramedicine project developed in collaboration with the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de la Montérégie-Centre (CISSS-MC). The Award of Excellence for Client Centered Initiative was presented at this Paramedic Chiefs of Canada Annual Leadership Summit 2024.

Serving patients well

CETAM worked for several years to develop a service that would revolutionize the way patients are helped when they call 911 for an ambulance resource. While tradition and the law dictated that every patient would be transported to hospital, CETAM and its paramedics knew there was room for improvement.

Since it went into service in 2020, the integrated community paramedicine proposal has offered an alternative to hospital transport for elderly patients whose condition is not cause for concern. Under these conditions, the service enables patients to find care services that are better adapted to their needs.

CETAM worked for several years to develop a service that would revolutionize the way patients were helped when they called 911 for an ambulance resource. While tradition and the law dictated that each patient would be transported to the hospital, CETAM and its paramedics knew that it was possible to provide an ambulance service for every patient.

The service is provided by one of the paramedics, who arrives at the patient's home in one of the company's vehicles. The paramedic assesses the patient's condition to ensure that urgent treatment is not required. In communication with a remote nurse from the homecare service, a co-assessment is completed to propose a care service more suited to the patient's needs (appointment at a medical clinic, consultation with a pharmacist, self-care instructions, etc.).

A visit from a home support nurse will also be arranged for the following day. If necessary, a physician can also be consulted to complete the co-assessment. Since its introduction, over 6,000 seniors have benefited from the service. The figures speak for themselves: in 63% of cases, patients have benefited from care without having to go to hospital. The satisfaction rate is an impressive 96%.

This project has already received other public recognition: a mention of excellence from the MSSS health and social services network in May 2023, and the award for excellence in the health and social services category from the Institut d'administration publique du Québec in December 2023.

Finally, three weeks ago, CISSS-MC and the other project collaborators were awarded first place in the "modern" category of the Prix Stars du Réseau de la santé. CETAM is obviously delighted to see its integrated community paramedicine project gain such recognition.

Directing the right patients to the right care services is clearly the way of the future for care that truly meets users' needs. The ambulance cooperative drew on a variety of resources to develop and sell the project to the CISSS-MC. It is proud to be able to deploy it in this territory.

"The fact that the Minister of Health and Social Services has included this innovative service developed by CETAM in his Plan d'urgence pour les services préhospitaliers d'urgence is, in our view, a major step in the right direction," says CETAM General Manager Martin Benoit.

CETAM has 6 places of assignment, two of which are located in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and Vaudreuil-Dorion.

About CETAM 

CETAM is Montérégie's largest employer in emergency care. The cooperative has over 480 members and a fleet of some 60 emergency vehicles. CETAM provides ambulance service to some 700,000 people in 56 municipalities covering 2,700 square kilometers, and responds to over 83,000 calls each year. Always mindful of the needs of the population, its members and its partners, CETAM offers high-quality, innovative pre-hospital care in pursuit of excellence.