Collaborative emergency centres get passing grade
Consultant says CECs offer better access to primary care, cut unplanned ER closures
Nova Scotia's collaborative emergency centres are getting a passing grade following a 10-month evaluation of the CEC model.
Stylus Consulting, the authors of the report, conclude CECs have provided patients with "better access to primary care" and have led to a "dramatic decrease in unplanned closures of local emergency departments."
There are currently eight CECs in the province. These are located in Parrsboro, Springhill, Tatamagouche, Annapolis Royal, Pugwash, Musquodoboit Harbour, Musquodoboit Valley and New Waterford.
The province plans to open another six, but there's no timeline on that expansion.
While the Stylus report says CECs are working, the consulting firm makes 18 recommendations to government.
Among them, to look at the possibility of paramedics making house calls overnight. That's because so many people are taking advantage of same-day or next-day appointments, that visits to the ER after hours has decreased significantly.
In fact, the report calls the drop in the number of overnight visits to emergency rooms "dramatic" since the creation of CECs in 2011.
Most CECs are seeing just one or two patients per night. The report says emergency rooms are often empty between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.
"A key finding of this evaluation is that a wiser investment of resources would be in ‘shoring up’ 12 hour/day-7 day/week primary health care services (which is when the vast majority of people need access to this care) rather than continuing to fund the overnight hours (which is often not used at all)," the report says.
There's also a warning about the growing popularity of CECs with people who live in communities outside what is considered the CEC catchment area.
"Unless predictable access to quality primary health-care services can be assured in all communities, those ‘islands’ of accessibility will be swamped by demand," the report says.
There is also a concern about the inability of existing health information systems to be able to "talk" to each other.
Paramedics are using one system of patient electronic record keeping while hospitals are using another that is not compatible.
That leads to duplication, the report says, and there's a risk of making mistakes.
It concludes "a one patient, one record goal is worthy of pursuit."
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