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Emergency Medical Services

Pe rth County EMS Service Commitment

DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION

Director / Chief of EMS - Linda Rockwood
Operations Manager / Deputy Chief – Cliff Eggleton
Community Emergency Management Coordinator – Christel Hollinger
Supervisors / Platoon Commanders - Mike Grosz, Mike Crawley, Jeff Sager, Chris Keyser, Scott Rutherford
Quality Assurance Supervisor/ Commander- Julie Jeffery
EMS Administration Clerk – Suzanne Campbell
Staff- Paramedics (50 Full Time and 40 Part Time)

HISTORY

Perth County EMS responds to approximately 10,000 calls for service per year. There are 7 staffed ambulances on duty at 5 stations during the day and 6 staffed ambulances at 5 stations during the night. The EMS fleet also includes 3 spare ambulances, 2 supervisor response vehicles and an emergency support trailer.

Ambulance stations are located in the City of Stratford (leased from the hospital, needing replacement), the Town of St Marys (new in 2008 County owned), Listowel (1988 County owned), Mitchell (new in 2010 County owned) and Milverton (new in 2005 County owned). The EMS Headquarters are located in Stratford in offices leased from Festival Hydro. A building committee is currently planning a new EMS Headquarters / Station in east end of Stratford.

The labour board ruled that the downloading of the ambulance service was considered a sale of business and as a result the County inherited its first unionized employees who belong to CUPE local 4514. The working relationship has been a positive one with the current 3 year collective agreement reached in 2010.

In 2010 as a result of a review of County departments The Community Emergency Management Coordination moved to report to the EMS director and both areas merged to form Perth County Emergency Services department.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Provide Emergency Medical Care and transportation as per Provincial Ambulance Act, Regulations and Standards.
To provide high quality and effective emergency medical services, patient transportation, and to promote disaster-resiliency.
County paramedics provide emergency medical care and treatment under the direction and license of the South Western Ontario Base Hospital Program, located at London Health Sciences. Perth County Paramedic’s Medical Director is Dr. Don Eby who is located in Owen Sound.
Our Primary Care paramedics provide our patients with symptom relief through the use of 7 drugs (epinephrine, nitroglycerin, ASA, glucagon, ventolin, benadryl and gravol) and provide patient cardiac monitoring and defibrillation through the use of a defibrillator.
Perth County paramedics are also certified in Intravenous therapy and 12 lead ECG acquisitions (the ability to diagnose certain heart attacks in the field).

UP-AND-COMING

Construction of new Heaquarters / EMS station in Stratford
Introductions of STEMI bypass system (taking heart attach victims straight to cardiac hospitals in Kitchener or London)

National EMS Stem Cell Challenge