Surge Response

Surge Response Services

Ornge has a range of expertise and resources that can be of assistance in community surge scenarios, such as a small hospital dealing with a multiple casualty scenario or a remote community dealing with an infectious disease outbreak.  In general terms, these services could be activated when a significant event is imminent or occurring. Examples include an influx of patients related to COVID-19 within a small community, an incident with multiple patients requiring medical evacuation or an incident having a significant impact on the local health care system.

Ornge’s surge response services can include the deployment of a team of Paramedics (described below) to assist with initial resuscitation and stabilization of patients while medical transportation arrangements are organized.

While the primary mandate of Ornge is patient transport, Ornge can assist in other ways, such as:

• providing clinical support via telemedicine with Ornge Transport Medicine Physicians (TMPs);
• rapidly deploying critical care paramedic support in the community while patients are being transported to tertiary care;
• providing other forms of logistical support for managing the early stages of surge, until such times as longer-term supports or solutions are available and/or the Emergency Medical Assistance Team (EMAT) can be deployed.

What We Can Offer

Ornge has the capacity to organize a group comprised of Ornge personnel who can be rapidly deployed to assist community hospitals or nursing stations if facility staff become overwhelmed. ​Personnel includes paramedics experienced in providing critical care medicine in semi-austere environments. They are supported behind-the-scenes by Transport Medicine Physicians as well as staff with expertise in logistics and incident management.

The intent is to provide temporary on-the-ground assistance as a bridge to the deployment of additional resources (Example: EMAT). ​ Ornge personnel can increase surge capacity by staffing Ornge assets or increasing the level of care of Standing Agreement air carriers. For example, critical care paramedics can be deployed onto an aircraft normally staffed by a primary care paramedic to increase the level of care. This assistance can be accessed through the Operations Control Centre and led by an Incident Management Team which is responsible for organizing deployment operations.