Paramedics Pivot and Work Long Hours to Save Lives During the Pandemic

“It’s a marathon. We can’t sprint out of the gate,” Essex-Windsor EMS Chief Bruce Krauter warned his staff when the COVID-19 pandemic hit 15 months ago.

But some days, as calls escalated, sprinting was what it took. Paramedics were providing emergency medical care and transportation with a whole new layer of evolving infection-control protocols woven in. At the same time, they were among the health-care workers called on to assess, educate, test and inoculate residents as the pandemic wore on.

They are foot soldiers in a race against the virus, navigating a course with unexpected obstacles and a finish line that keeps moving into the distance like a mirage.

“They’re getting near the end of the marathon and they’re tired,” Krauter said. Despite the fatigue, they continue to answer the call to go above and beyond.

“As of late, we put a call out to staff saying, ‘We need people to drive to Toronto and pick up patients and bring them back to Windsor-Essex,’ so they could relieve the pressure on the (Greater Toronto Area) and people could get the health care they needed,” Krauter said. “Without even a bat of the eye, I think we had close to 40 staff step up and say, ‘We will do it. Just give us a call and we will go.’”

And they did, seven days a week. Some days as many as five ambulances travelled up Highway 401 and back to deliver recovering patients to hospitals in Windsor, Chatham and Sarnia. Krauter said he hopes it is one of the last extraordinary steps they will take to end the pandemic, but he’s not counting on it.

He remembers too well how it all started. Before public health officials announced the bad news, Essex-Windsor EMS saw the first wave build in late March 2020. The digital screen in Krauter’s office that tracks ambulances was lighting up with suspected COVID-19 calls.

His staff had been preparing for something like the SARS outbreak that had hit Toronto in 2003, but it was clear COVID-19 was far more widespread and harder to control. Paramedics started the pandemic wearing respirators and then switched to masks as the science advanced and health directives changed.

Paramedics have donned masks, gloves and protective glasses during flu outbreaks, but the infection control measures to deal with COVID-19 are stricter and more time consuming, Krauter said.

Paramedics wear safety glasses, gloves and surgical masks for every call. Patients are given surgical masks to wear. If paramedics must perform invasive procedures, they put on respirators and face shields. In some cases, they pull on protective Tyvek suits than can be disposed of after they treat a patient.

There are “doffing stations” at the hospitals – housed in trailers – where paramedics go in one door, take off contaminated safety gear and disinfect, and step out another door before heading to the next call. Ambulances are also disinfected after every run.

Before the pandemic, EMS staff could wear their dirty uniforms home and drop them off later at a dry-cleaner. Now, they’re provided with a place at each of the 11 stations in Essex County and Windsor to clean up and change after each shift.

Because of the safety procedures, there have been no cases of paramedics and patients infecting each other, Krauter said. “I think it’s going to be the new normal. I think for our staff and the public, we have to keep it up.”

The Essex-Windsor EMS staff includes non-paramedics who handle scheduling, procurement, maintenance of ambulances, administration and cleaning for infection control. The pandemic has made all their jobs more challenging, Krauter said.

Along with spending more time on infection control, paramedics have stepped in to assist other health workers with conducting medical assessments, taking nasal swabs for testing and vaccinating vulnerable populations.

The first call to arms came in April 2020, when long-term care homes started to be overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases among residents and staff. Essex-Windsor EMS assisted with testing and transported patients to a field hospital set up at St. Clair College.

When foreign temporary workers in the agri-food sector in Leamington and Kingsville were hit last summer, the service assisted with health assessments and testing in Leamington and at an isolation centre at a Windsor hotel.

That is when administrators at local health agencies realized they needed a strike team that could quickly swoop into hotspots, Krauter said. COVID response stabilization teams, run out of Erie Shores HealthCare, were born. The mobile teams are made up of nurses, paramedics and other health-care workers seconded by different agencies.

They were deployed to assess, test and later vaccinate the homeless in Windsor. They have helped inoculate long-term care residents and other vulnerable people living in congregate settings, including agri-food workers.

Partnerships with local hospitals, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit and Ontario Health have been strengthened by the pandemic, Krauter said: “We grew these bonds, not because we were told and not because we were directed. We did it because it had to be done.”

Fighting the pandemic is a team effort for which everyone involved deserves credit, and Paramedic Services Week (May 23-29) is an ideal time to honour and thank EWEMS staff, Krauter said.

Banners proclaiming “Thank you hometown heroes” have been hoisted in the eight municipalities served by EWEMS. On each banner are the badge numbers of the paramedics who live in that community.

“They are their identifier of people that live in your town that worked day in and day out over the last 15 months, said Krauter. “So, if you know a paramedic, if you see a paramedic, if you know someone that works for Essex-Windsor EMS, just give a thanks.”