New patient-treatment app not in cards for WFPS

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This article was published 30/05/2016 (3798 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An organization representing Manitoba paramedics is teaming up with a local software company to produce a mobile app they say would make it easier for attendants to consult patient-treatment protocols and could potentially save lives.

But the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service wants nothing to do with it.

Eric Glass, administrative director of the Paramedic Association of Manitoba, said the application for tablet or smartphone would provide information in a more user-friendly form, allowing paramedics to move swiftly from one treatment protocol to the next.

The app, now being tested by a small group of paramedics, is expected to be available for free to paramedic members in late June. The voluntary membership organization represents 1,600 of Manitoba’s 2,000 paramedics.

Glass said “a lot” of paramedics are currently trying to access Health Department treatment protocols on their smartphones, finding it more convenient than using laptops.

“They’re copying and pasting PDF files and Word documents,” he said, although accessing the information can be cumbersome. That’s why the paramedics are working with Winnipeg tech company Consultica to make the information more accessible. 

However, a spokeswoman for the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said the service does not issue smartphones to paramedics, and its rules forbid the use of personal devices by attendants on duty.

Michelle Finley said the city provides laptops to paramedics that contain the appropriate protocols and procedures. 

“Having all of our paramedics on the same system ensures they are following the most up-to-date protocols,” Finley said in an email. “At this point, there is no need within WFPS for a third-party app.”

Glass said the paramedics association plans to offer the app to paramedics working outside the city for now. “I expect that the majority of people who are going to be using this are rural paramedics,” he said in an interview.

There are “subtle differences” in the treatment protocols used by the city and those employed outside of Winnipeg, Glass said. The paramedics and Consultica offered to produce a separate app for city paramedics to account for the differences but were rebuffed, he added.

Luc Bohunicky, chief brand officer for Consultica, said no jurisdiction in Canada has yet developed such an app. If one were to be successfully developed in Manitoba, the company would try to market the product to other regions, with the paramedics receiving a share of the profits.

“We’re in an industry here where seconds really matter. If we can create something that gives them information much faster, we’re empowering the front-line folks,” Bohunicky said.

Glass suggested the WFPS isn’t interested in the new app because it plans to develop one of its own, a contention the city denies.

However, Glass forwarded to the Free Press an email exchange between himself and a WFPS official in which the paramedics association was told the city’s IT branch “is in the process of expanding the accessibility of WFPS online to include a mobile type of app.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca