Okanagan ambulances equipped with life saving devices

New life saving devices are being added to ambulances in the Okanagan.

It’s part of ground breaking pilot project between Interior Health and the BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) to provide every ambulance near a heart cath lab with devices that can determine if a patient’s symptoms are due to a heart attack. Ambulances will be supplied with portable electrocardiogram (ECG) machines, giving patients immediate access to state-of-the-art care.

Support from people, families and organizations from Lake Country, Predator Ridge, Vernon and Armstrong has allowed for the purchase of eight ECG machines for the region.

“As a result, the Okanagan will be the first area in British Columbia where an ECG machine will be readily available to measure electrical activity in the heart for patients experiencing chest pain under the care of a paramedic,” a news release from the Vernon Jubilee Hospital Foundation, stated.

Portable ECG machine. (Submitted photo/VJH Foundation)

“When patients are experiencing a heart attack, restoring blood flow is paramount as heart muscle tissue does not regenerate when it dies. Within the first hour of onset of symptoms, you lose about 50 per cent of the available heart muscle tissue being supplied by the affected artery. Within three hours you’ll lose two thirds of it. It drives home how important it is to have a diagnosis as soon as possible, in order to have a healthy heart after a heart attack,” explained Trevor Campbell, Advanced Care Paramedic Practice Educator, BCEHS.

Currently, when patients present with chest pain, they are brought to Vernon Jubilee Hospital (VJH) where an ECG is performed. If the chest pain is diagnosed as a STEMI—a serious form of heart attack where the coronary artery is blocked and a large part of the heart muscle is unable to receive blood—they are stabilized and transferred to the cardiac cath lab in Kelowna. Experts say in a STEMI, the risk of permanent damage is grave, and time is of the essence.

With ECG machines in every ambulance, and BCEHS providing training to all primary care paramedic crews located within a certain radius to a cath lab, paramedics will transmit ECG results directly to the hospital where medical teams can conduct preliminary assessments. Paramedics will give advanced notification from the ambulance to the receiving hospitals in order to shorten the time to appropriate treatments. If a STEMI is identified, patients will bypass VJH and be transported directly to the Kelowna General Hospital Cardiac Cath Lab, providing expedited treatment and direct access to the appropriate interventions.

“It is very exciting for us—our seven internists, the entire ICU and our emergency teams—to make this service available to our patients. When I’m on call, I see, on average, one to two STEMI patients per week. This is a fantastic initiative and a great example of innovative collaboration. To quote a slogan from the Society of Critical Care Medicine, ‘This will truly provide the Right Care. Right Now,’” Dr. Danie Roux, Head of the Department of Medicine, VJH, remarked.

The new machines will also provide advanced vital sign monitors and defibrillators. Paramedics will be conducting ECG tests in the field and also have the ability to acquire advanced vital signs and perform non-invasive blood pressure monitoring.

Online training for the paramedics has been completed and one-on-one training will start in March.