Newfoundland and Labrador Integrated Ambulance Services

The Province seeks a Contracted Supplier responsible to provide ambulance transport services subject to the approval and oversight of the Minister of Health and Community Services and under the delegated authority of Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services (NLHS) and manage the provincial budget and operations for ground, medical communications centre, non-medical transport, and air ambulance services on behalf of NLHS, in accordance with the Emergency Health and Paramedicine Services Act (not yet enforced; timelines not determined) and any associated Regulations in force including: management of NLHS Paramedicine staff to operate the ambulance service in accordance with NLHS Human Resource policies, relevant collective agreements, and Paramedicine provider regulations; manage dispatch operations for all emergency calls, routine medical transfers, and non-medical transports in NLHS’ Medical Dispatch Centre (MDC) located in the St. John’s area, followed by the provincial centralized Medical Communications Centre (MCC); maintain and manage NLHS information technology (IT) resource assets and system call and transport data to support capacity as part of MCC dispatch operations and ground ambulance unit technology; manage the existing ground ambulance base infrastructure. As soon as operational stability has been achieved, determine the optimal positioning and deployment of ground ambulances based on historical Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) data and operational experience as part of continuous improvement efforts in system planning to ensure efficient operations and optimal service coverage; determine non-medical transport needs as part of the province-wide system deployment planning and contract non-medical transport providers, as required, to expand on existing services and provide a range of local options to meet regional demand; manage and maintain all NLHS Paramedicine assets, including ambulance and Rapid Response units, equipment, technology, supplies and ambulance bases, and ambulance system call and transport data within the defined NLHS budget. The Proponent’s draft System Status Plan is expected to provide detailed expectations about the scale and scope of province-wide ambulance operations; represent NLHS (the Employer) as the manager of front-line resources and liaise with unions as require; provide clinical management staff; establish and implement a ten-year (10) resource plan to upskill and transition the Paramedicine workforce to a minimum of PCP certification; establish a Training and Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement program; work with NLHS to expand the Community Paramedicine program,; assume management oversight of current fixed-wing and helicopter contracts on a short- term basis, if required, to facilitate any new aviation service provider sufficient time to obtain air ambulance operating certificates and secure assets and facility space requirements; support Department of Transportation and Infrastructure in directing operational activities of Government Air Services (GAS) staff during the period of transition; implement a long-term plan for building capacity to realize a province-wide Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) program; develop policies and procedures related to business continuity and emergency/disaster response planning, Adverse Event Management/Occurrence Reporting; and provide communications leadership to promote NLHS paramedicine services and perform community and stakeholder relations. 

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