A new initiative at Mount Sinai’s Schwartz/Reisman Emergency Centre has greatly reduced the average time ambulance patients wait for treatment, contributing significantly to enhanced patient care.

In September 2008, Mount Sinai hired its first “offload” nurse, whose sole role is to care for patients arriving by ambulance. The offload nurse position is a Toronto Emergency Medical Services (EMS) program that is funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

“The offload nurse position benefits patients by allowing them to receive more immediate care, timely testing, and gets paramedics back to the streets rather than waiting with patients in the emergency department,” says Carolyn Farquharson, Emergency Nursing Administrator.

Only a few days after the program began, average offload times at Mount Sinai dropped from approximately two hours to 20 minutes.

In December 2008, Toronto EMS made a presentation to Mount Sinai’s Emergency Centre with an award for its success in reducing offload times.