Each week thousands of patients in Ontario are loaded into the backs of what they think are ambulances, tended to by people that they think are trained paramedics. Wrong on both counts. Tune into The Sunday Edition on CBC Radio One on December 13 just after the ten o’clock news to hear my documentary that explores the truly shocking practices that are taking place aboard these vehicles.
After hearing segments of recorded interviews with current and former workers within this industry, Dr. Ignatius Fong, the head of Infectious Diseases at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, warns of a catastrophe waiting to happen because of the lack of infection control procedures aboard these trucks. This investigation uncovers appalling practices throughout this industry that includes transporting patients with infectious diseases in the same vehicle with patients who do not have infectious diseases. With absolutely no oversight from Ontario’s Ministry of Health, this unregulated industry has been gambling with the health of thousands of unsuspecting Ontario patients.
Tune into CBC Radio on December 13 for a feature documentary on The Sunday Edition, just after the 10:00 am news, 10:30 in Newfoundland.
Hey Tina I just listened to your doc on CBC radio and it was great! That’s the kind of old fashioned quality research and interviewing on a topic of public interest we need more of.
I hope Sunday Morning keeps us updated on the progress of this issue. Surely it can’t continue after people hear such a powerful and convincing documentary.
Hey Tina i have just listened to your document and it put a smile to my face, because this is a topic that we’ve been fighting for couple years and No one paid attention to us but you. and the employee are telling the truth but management is lying.
THANK YOU
this is a link of more issues of what is going on in the Ontario patient transfer take a look this happen couple month ago.
they are in Ottawa Ontario its called Travois/ OPT as Ontario patient transfer.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/09/25/ottawa-travois-strike-medical-transfers-hospital-patients.html
First, I am not trying to defend these companies. I worked for one of these companies for about a year and a half; it was a fall back job for me because jobs for qualified primary care paramedics are scarce. Yes, I was one of the few that I can say I was qualified to work in those transfer trucks. However, in the eyes of the Minstry of Health Ontario – anyone who has basic first aid (8 hour course) and health care provider BLS (CPR) can work in transfer trucks.
I will tell right now, there were some people I had as partners that I could trust to help me if needed and there there were others that I wouldn’t even trust to top the truck with gas.
There are a very many secrets I can comment on about this industry – the fact of the matter is that there is just too much to comment on (I can almost right a book about it).
And yes, the shocking truth is that one of these days something very bad is going to happen.
This practice is something I think should be changed by the Ontario Ministry of Health. I always thought there was at least one Paramedic on board. Lets work hard to get this practice changed and now, and have a Paramedic on board with each transfer in case of emergency. I also realize that it is very expense to have the regular ambulance service (with 2 Paramedics) doing transfers. So Ontario Ministry of Health get off your butts and do something for all our safety.
I loved my job out on the road. I was one of the few trained as a paramedic. I was one of the few that was in the higher paying bracket for this job; I was making $13/hr.
Why I left: Management of the company I was working for – they didn’t care about patients we were transporting; as for their employees, they even cared less. The turn-over was high, so why bother caring. The vehicles had some issues: For one we were using cargo vans (Dodge Sprinters) to move the patients; this wasn’t the best for patients that had spinal, hip, and femur injuries. However, I couldn’t really complain about the vehicles because they didn’t have bad diesel fumes in the rear compartment unlike other transfer companies I have heard stories about. However, in the winter the Sprinters were cold – right to the point we had to layer the blankets on the patient. The company did try its best to keep the vehicles on the road. For the most part it was the employees that would generally cause the problems with the vehicles.
One thing I must make clear though. The company I worked for permitted its employees to refuse patients. I know there are some companies out there that suspend the attendants if they refuse. You have to keep in mind that these transfer companies are for non-emergency transfers. There have been times where I did refuse to take patients because of their unstable condition. Hospitals have tried to use transfer the service I worked for to move an unstable patient from one hospital to another because waiting for a Ministry EMS ambulance is based on the volumes of emergency calls; if EMS is busy, hospital transfers are bottom of the list in priority and sometimes the hospital just wants the patient out the door.
In 2005 the average cost per call for EMS in Simcoe County was $335.73 (Simcoe County: HS 05-088). The company I worked for charged hospitals about $170; other transfer companies charged less. Now for EMS, an emergency call from a residence to hospital, the majority of the cost per call is covered by OHIP and the patient only gets a bill for $40, unless they are on welfare then it is free. The other reason for the hospitals using private transfer companies to move patients around is the cost savings. A hospital would have to pay EMS the full cost per call for a transfer. If a private transfer service can move a patient for less than half of what EMS charges, then why not use them.
One thing is for sure. The private transfer services should be regulated. I really didn’t like it when I had a temporary partner (when my regular partner was sick) who didn’t know anything and didn’t care about the patient. The people these companies hire are people who have taken basic first-aid and CPR. In basic first-aid you don’t learn the fundamentals of patient care as you do in a college paramedic program. In fact, most of the people that are employed by the transfer companies are firefighter want-to-bes . As a requirement for most firefighter jobs these days I have learned that one of evaluations for employment with a fire service is a history of patient care i.e. “have you had any previous experience in patient care?” Now a firefighter has a little more than basic first-aid; they have first responder (40 hour course). But it still does not replace a paramedic.
I agree paramedics should be used for any transfers from the hospitals. There are enough of them that graduate from colleges every year – the market is flooded with qualified paramedics who can’t get EMS jobs. If only these transfer services would pay more – I would still be working for them.
I too used to work for a patient transfer company…and I can attest to what the employees are saying as being, for the most part, true. The company I worked for frequently sent trucks out on the road that were NOT safe; however if the Air conditioning was not working we would be able to switch trucks. Co-workers of mine did get suspended from work for refusing to carry unstable patients, or refusing unsafe work (a right that is guaranteed in the ESA).
I am very saddened to hear that the 4 month old boy (Nathan) almost lost his life due to the negligence of the two attendants. One of them should have been in the back to attend to the patient…
I do have some issues with what some of the former employee of Ambutrans said. One person mentioned about taking a patient that was sitting in there own mess…whether it was urine or fecal matter…if any patient that I was to carry, was in such a state I would have the hospital staff clean up the mess. This is not an attack on the attendants…it just seems to me that too often the staff in hospitals, once a patient is to be discharged, leave the patient alone and all patient care stops…which is wrong!
I strongly agree that the industry should be regulated. I do not believe that one or more of the people should be trained paramedics…although there should be some form of certification beyond standard first aid and CPR!
I too worked for a Southern Ontario Patient Transfer company. On a regular basis we had questionable staff and equipment on the road. They did always remove trucks from service that had an air conditioning problem.
The company went as far as to have event medical services on their patches (EMS) to give the illusion of a higher service.
No one has mentioned the vehicles still having red emergency lights showing to the front. This is against the highway traffic act. An argument was made that they were required for use at an airport. This is not true, a vehicle being escorted only requires 4 way flashers.
Management had no care for the employee’s. In the owners eyes they were glorified cab drivers.
Hey I’m wondering if there is a link to the audio file of the “risky buisness” documentary, because I’d like to post it on my facebook page?
Yes there is – you can hear it here – scroll down and the audio player is a few paragraphs down.
http://tinapittaway.com/2009/12/listen-to-risky-business/
We live in Mississauga, Ontario and have never heard of this problem. Is this a problem throughout Ontario, or is it a local problem is a specific area? I could understand if this was in a smaler community , possibly in Northern Ontario.
Could the supplier of the information relate it to an area?
In response to the posting above, it is a problem throughout the province. There are some communities that have introduced bylaws that require minimum standards in terms of the vehicles, and minimum requirements for the staff, but they are few and far between.
In some smaller communities it may in fact be less of a problem, since they may not have the population to support a for-profit company, so EMS vehicles with trained paramedics staff all non-urgent transfers, but it’s really a patchwork. In the larger metropolitan areas like the GTA these trucks move thousands and thousands of patients each week, completely free of standards and regulations. It is a wide-spread concern. I looked at 4 companies operating in the GTA, and beyond. All of them had horrendous infection control practices, and all of them suspended workers who advocated for the safety of their patients (i.e. told dispatch that their patient required a higher level of care than they could provide). They suspend workers because they do not want them turning down calls, as they lose the revenue that is attached to the call.
Patients have the right to refuse to be transported aboard these trucks. They can insist on only being transported aboard an EMS vehicle. However, there is such a demand for patient transfers that if you refuse the option of being moved by a private service, you may miss your appointment, or wait in hallways etc. for hours waiting for an ambulance.
It is not a problem that will be fixed overnight.
Most hospitals that I have spoke with have had no idea that these kinds of things are occurring in the industry. Ultimately, it is the hospital that is responsible for the standards aboard these vehicles as they are the ones signing the contracts. But as Darryl Culley pointed out in the documentary, and as the IBI Report commissioned by the Ministry of Health under Tony Clement (Federal minister of industry currently), hospitals are not equipped to deal with the oversight of these services.
There have been repeated calls for the Ministry of Health to regulate the industry. Ontario is the only province in the nation that does not regulate these services. The Ministry of Health, under Deb Matthews, maintains that there is no need to regulate this industry, and that patients needs are being met.