DECEMBER 6, 2011
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COUNTY COUNCIL
For meeting to be held on:
Submitted by:
For:
December 6, 2011
Neal Roberts, Director of
Emergency Services
Action
Subject:
ELECTRONIC AMBULANCE CALL REPORT
SOFTWARE ACQUISITION
BACKGROUND
Since the County of Middlesex assumed responsibility for the land ambulance service
from the Province of Ontario, paramedics have been completing Ambulance Call
Reports (ACR’s) on paper. Over the past 5 years the EMS system in Ontario has seen
EMS services migrate from paper charting to electronic charting. The previous Director
of Emergency Services had been examining this issue and had created a reserve
account to fund the cost of moving the system from paper charting to electronic
charting. It had been determined that a project of this size would be best handled by
the incoming Director of Emergency Services. On November 22, 2011, Council
approved funding for the first phase to purchase the hardware (laptops) to move the
system towards electronic ambulance call reports.
ANALYSIS
Several vendors have been examined for software and hardware in order to prepare the
system for transition to electronic charting. To date a project team consisting of
representatives from the Southwest Regional Base Hospital, Thames EMS,
paramedics, and representatives from the London Health Sciences Centre have been
meeting to work through the process to provide information on the selection of a
preferred software vendor. Initially vendors well known to the EMS industry were
reviewed, IMEDIC, Siren, Zoll. After review of all of the vendors, the team determined
to move forward with field trials with two vendors and ultimately decided on IMEDIC
(which was also the lowest price).
As of the date of this report, all field testing has been completed and a recommendation
received. A recommendation to move forward with IMEDIC as the vendor of record to
transition Middlesex-London Emergency Medical Services from paper based charting to
electronic charting was put forward. IMEDIC is not new to Ontario EMS and currently is
the vendor of record for 32 EMS services throughout the province. Given the short time
period for installation and the “go-live date”, it was felt that this product would allow for
an easier transition.
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DECEMBER 6, 2011
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SUBJECT:
AMBULANCE
ELECTRONIC
ACQUISITION
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CALL
REPORT
SOFTWARE
Once approved by County Council, the Director of Emergency Services will enter into a
contract with IMEDIC to start the process to move from paper based charting to
electronic charting by Mid March 2012.
IMEDIC has provided the County with pricing based on a tendered process with another
EMS service within Ontario. Costing for the system came in as follows:
Total Software purchase to operate the system:
Set up, Installation and training:
Annual maintenance and hosting costs:
$97,744.00+HST
$19,000.00+HST
$48,949.00+HST
Implementation of the system transition will start in January 2012 with “Super Users”
field testing the system for implementation. During the month of February, the system
would be configured based on the feedback, as well as the training program would be
developed. In late February/ early March of 2012 all staff would be trained in the use of
electronic charting with a “go-live” date sometime around the third week of March.
Given this tight timeline, this report is coming to Council at this time for consideration
and a request for authorization to issue a purchase order for the purchase of the
necessary software.
RECOMMENDATION
That the Director of Emergency Services be authorized to enter into an agreement with
IMEDIC for the purchase of Electronic Ambulance Call Report software and support.
That Council authorize the purchase of Electronic Ambulance Call Report software
(IMEDIC) at a onetime cost of $116,744.00+HST to be funded from the Ambulance
Equipment and Facilities Reserve Account and that the ongoing costs of
$48,949.00+HST be paid from the annual operating budget for Middlesex-London
Emergency Medical Services.