By Rajitha Sivakumaran
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A
ccording to a report released by the
Alberta Health Services (AHS), of
the 2,300 patients surveyed, most
were immensely satisfied with their EMS
experience in the 2015-2016 period. The
time that it took for the emergency com-
munications officer to dispatch an ambu-
lance has gradually improved since 2013.
The AHS target is 90 seconds at the 90th
percentile, but the reality is only about 15
seconds longer.
The time that it took for an ambulance to
arrive for life-threatening situations in ur-
ban centres didn’t take more than 10 to 12
minutes for 90 per cent of cases, with a
median response time of about seven min-
utes. Small communities with a population
of less than 3,000 experienced slightly in-
creasedwait times. It usually took less than
40 minutes to reach rural areas whereas
remote zones normally did not wait longer
than an hour. Although response times for
rural and remote communities may seem
long, EMS services met the target set by
the AHS in both cases.
Fort McMurray, the largest unincorporated
"city" in Alberta, is a rapidly growing in-
dustrial centre with a population of over
60,000 people. Yet about 12 years ago,
Ryan Pruden, a Fort McMurray native, Me-
tis and EMT/Rescue Tech by trade, felt ob-
ligated to start his own EMS company. “I
just noticed that there weren’t any medi
OCTOBER 2016
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