Ottawa Hospital requests new funding to boost offload nursing program in ERs

The Ottawa Paramedic Service Annual Report says hospital offload delays create periods where all of the city's ambulances are either on calls or waiting at a hospital to transfer patient care, leaving the service at "level zero" with no ambulances available.

The Ottawa Hospital is asking for $4.5 million in new funding to boost the offload nurse program in hospital emergency rooms, as paramedics experience longer waits to transfer patients to hospitals.

New statistics released by the city of Ottawa show the 90^th percentile offload time for paramedics at the four local hospitals exceeds two hours and 40 minutes so far this year, up from two hours and 30 minutes in 2022.

In June, council approved a plan to hire 120 new paramedics over the next three years, including asking the province to fund 17 new paramedics a year to address offload delays in Ottawa hospitals and reduce the number of level zero events.

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Now, Emergency and Protective Services general manager Kim Ayotte says the Ottawa Hospital submitted a request to the Ministry of Health for $4.5 million to hire more nurses and add more beds to the offload nurse program.

Under the proposal, the funding would cover the costs to staff 12 new beds at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus, 12 beds at the General Campus, eight at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital and four at the Montfort Hospital.

"The Ottawa Hospital asserts that the additional $4.5M will reduce offload delay and make redundant the Ottawa Paramedic Service request for an additional 17 FTEs," Ayotte said in a memo to council.

As of Friday, the Ottawa Hospital has not received confirmation of provincial funding for the new beds in the offload program.

Earlier this year, the province did increase the Dedicated Offload Nursing Program funding by $1 million, but Ayotte says hospitals have had difficulty staffing the position, "and often, there is no dedicated offload nurse available."

The Ministry of Health funds 50 per cent of land ambulance operations and 100 per cent of the Dedicated Offload Nursing Program.

"Since June, the Paramedic Chief, staff in Emergency and Protective Services department and the Mayor’s Office have been meeting monthly with the Ontario Minister of Health’s Chief of Staff and The Ottawa Hospital CEO to identify solutions to reduce offload delay and level zero events," Ayotte said.

"Resolving the offload delay issue in emergency departments is critical to eliminating level zero events and improving service delivery, response times and patient outcomes."

Ayotte says staff will continue to discuss options to address offload delays, including 100 per cent funding for 17 new paramedics in each year of the current term.

Ottawa Paramedics spent 93,686 hours in offload delays in emergency rooms last year, up from 57,818 hours in offload delay in 2022.

The city of Ottawa has hired 14 new paramedics a year for the past seven years.