Ornge’s core service is to provide high quality medical transport, in the air and on the ground, to the citizens of Ontario. Ornge has aligned all of our programs and services to facilitate this function. Whether it is through Medical Affairs, where all medical best practices are decided or through our Operations Control Centre (OCC), the nerve centre of our operations – Ornge programs and services enable us to propel life with innovation.

Air Operations

Two Ornge helicopters in flight

Ornge’s teams of flight and pediatric paramedics work round-the-clock to provide air transport to all patients across Ontario’s one million square kilometre landscape.

Ornge’s Air Operations regulated by the Canadian Transportation Agency. Accordingly our Air Operations is licensed and we are required to publish the required Tariffs.​​​

  • Canada Inc. International Tariff
  • Canada Inc. Domestic Tariff
  • Global Air International Tariff
  • Ornge Global Air Domestic Tariff
Learn more about our fleet.

Critical Care Land Ambulance Program

A team of Ornge medical staff boarding a helicopter at night

Ornge's team of critical care land paramedics provides a faster and safer transport service of critically ill patients throughout the Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa and Peterborough regions.

Our Program

  • Relieves pressure on land ambulance services allowing them to focus on 911 emergency calls
  • Reduces the need for hospitals to provide escort staff for critical care patient transfers
  • Enables Ornge to increase aero-medical availability for outlying rural and remote areas

Current areas of operation include:

AREA HOURS OF OPERATION
Greater Toronto Area 12 hours a day, 7 days a week
Ottawa 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Peterborough 12 hours a day, 7 days a week


View Ornge Critical Care Land Ambulance Program Medical Scope of Service Utilization Critera.

Medical Advisory Committee (MAC)

A team of Ornge paramedics wheeling in a patient on a gurney

The Clinical Affairs department is an important link between the physicians who provide medical support and direction and the Paramedics/Registered Nurses or RNs who perform patient care during transport.

This department is responsible for the management of all patient care documentation, collaboration with physicians to meet organizational objectives and the administration of the Medical Advisory Committee (MAC).

Ornge's MAC consists of Medical Directors of Ornge, all of whom are physicians, including the Chief of Staff.  Its mandate is to provide advice for, and supervision of, all aspects of care that fall under Ornge's scope.

Operations Control Centre (OCC)

A woman working in operations with a headset on

The Operations Control Centre (OCC) coordinates approximately 20,000 patient-related transports each year using our helicopters, fixed wing aircrafts, and critical care land ambulances from various bases across Ontario.

Communications Officers, with the assistance of our Transport Medicine Physicans (TMPs), ensure that each medical transport is assigned to the appropriate personnel and equipment necessary to complete the call in a timely manner.

Our on-call doctors:

  • Increase time efficiency
  • Increase time efficiency and accuracy of a triage of emergency calls
  • Engage Health Care facilities which increases the ability for Ornge to provide transport
  • Enhance awareness of Ornge resources when deciding on the appropriate transport method

Accessibility

Ornge is not publicly accessible via 911. Through our OCC, Ornge responds at the request of the local land ambulance, Central Ambulance Communication Centres (CACC), and Ambulance Communications Services (ACS).

PTAC

The OCC also serves as the Provincial Transfer Authorization Centre (PTAC). PTAC helps with infectious disease control by screening patient transfers between Health Care facilities in Ontario.

PTAC has become an integral component of Ontario's infectious disease control strategy by:

  • Identifying high-risk patients
  • Determining the need for personal protective equipment
  • Reducing the spread of communicable respiratory diseases

Click here to request an MT Number, or learn more about the OCC.

Research and Development

An Ornge engineer fixing up a helicopter

Ornge's research group is focused on developing new insight and innovation in the field of air medical and land critical care patient transports. The group includes experts in patient care, education, information technology, aviation and safety. It builds on the existing strengths for research and innovative thinking within Ornge, and provides expertise to internal and external stakeholders in the transport medicine industry. The group has a track record of peer-reviewed publications, grants, and collaborations with many partners.

The group's main area of research include development and implementation of decision support applications to improve time-critical decision-making in air medical dispatch, optimization of resource utilization, identification and root cause analysis of critical events in patient transport, evidence-based benchmarking of patient care and education on clinical performance.

Ornge works with partners across the medical community to carry out unique and forward-thinking research projects. Partners include the Centre for Medical Transport Research, The Critical Care Transport CORE group, Cornell University's School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, and the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto.

Members of the Ornge research group also supervise graduate and post-graduate trainees in medicine, science and engineering who carry out research in pre-hospital care and transport medicine as part of their advanced training or graduate degrees. To view all research projects, please click here.

Education and Training

The Education and Training department delivers four core training programs, Initial Education, Continuing Medical Education, Operational Training and the Aeromedical Theory Course.
 
  1. Initial Education training programs include the Advanced Care Flight Paramedic - Bridge and Critical Care Paramedic programs. 
  2. Continuing Medical Education encompasses the delivery of mandatory, annual, medical training requirements for Ornge Paramedics for maintenance of certification. 
  3. Operational Training annual training for Ornge Paramedics which includes CPR, Transportation of Dangerous Goods, Underwater Escape Training, Stretcher Lifting, use of new medical equipment and any other legislated or mandated operational training requirements.  
  4. Aeromedical Theory Course provides the additional knowledge and skills required to work in an air transport environment.
These programs are delivered using a combination of instructor and self-lead learning, practical lab sessions, patient simulation, on-line learning and clinical placement.  

Note: The Aeromedical Theory Course is the only program offered externally.