New EMS dispatch system in Windsor-Essex being fast-tracked

A new Windsor EMS dispatch system is being fast-tracked.

Essex-Windsor EMS is moving to a new ambulance dispatch system later this year.

The province has fast-tracked the service to switch to the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) sometime between June and September.

The region wasn’t expecting to switch over until Feb. 2027.

EMS Chief Justin Lammers told AM800’s The Shift with Patty Handysides that MPDS will change how ambulance communications officers will take in calls and triage them.

“It uses structured medically validated questions to better understand what’s happening during the call, and this leads to a more accurate prioritization and some more precise deployment of our units,” he said.

Lammers said currently there’s only two options for dispatchers when triaging: quick response with lights and sirens or non-urgent calls may wait longer.

“MPDS gives five options. The first two, and it switches over to a colour code, the first two are critical incidents, life threatening emergencies,” said Lammers.

“The remaining three, we’re allowed to, I don’t want to say delay, but we can take our time getting to them.”

Lammers said the new system will allow EMS to keep ambulances on the road so they’re available to respond to the most critical calls.

He added that other jurisdictions, such as Simcoe County, that have switched over to MPDS, have seen improvements to their operations.

“They’ve noticed better dispatch precision. They’ve had a significant reduction in end-of-shift overtime, which is a big deal for our frontline. Improved ability to get paramedics their breaks,” Lammers said.

“So it’s not only about getting to the most critical calls quicker, and having a better understanding what we’re going for, but it’s also to reduce some of the workload on our frontline paramedics.”

Last month at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) Conference, Lammers urged Ontario’s health minister to place trained clinicians in the 911 dispatch centre once MPDS launches, arguing it would improve call triage and help manage growing ambulance demand.

Lammers said he was awaiting the decision from the ministry.