Emergency Health Services

EHS Ground Ambulance Clinical Program Documents

EHS clinical policies, procedures, protocols and guidelines, guide and enable strong paramedic practice with safe, evidence-based, quality patient care. The Office of the Provincial Medical Director is responsible for the development and review of all EHS clinical policies/documents. An important resource for the development of paramedic practice is the Canadian Prehospital Evidence Based Practice site. To learn more or to become more involved, please contact EHS at 902-424-1729 and/or at  healthehs@novascotia.ca.

Please note that EHS is undergoing significant transformation, linking both evidence and knowledge to policy, protocols, guidelines and practice. This is illustrated by:

• The evolution of a traditional protocol format to a contemporary clinical practice guideline (CPG) format for paramedic clinicians; Items listed as a CPG have been updated and migrated to this new format. Items listed as ‘Protocols’ remain in the older format however, they are currently in the queue for reformatting to the ‘CPG’ format. These will be replaced on the website as they are transitioned. Please note that although these ‘Protocols’ PDFs may list updates more than 12 months ago, they are active EHS protocols with approval dates effective since April 1, 2018.
• The transition of procedure documents to a new improved format.
• Transformation of existing policies to better guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes in a changing healthcare landscape within the EHS system of care and between systems of care (e.g. public health, public safety and healthcare) within Nova Scotia and the Maritimes.

EHS has made every effort to ensure that the information contained in the Policies, Procedures, Protocols, Clinical Practice Guidelines and Medication documents issued is accurate at the time of publication. All information listed within this website has been updated and approved effective April 1, 2018.

The EHS guidance is advisory and has been developed to assist healthcare professionals, together with patients, to make decisions about the management of the patient’s health, including treatments. It is intended to support the decision-making process and is not a substitute for sound clinical judgment. Guidelines cannot always contain all the information necessary for determining appropriate care and cannot address all individual situations; therefore, individuals using these guidelines must ensure they have the appropriate knowledge and skills to enable appropriate interpretation.

EHS Clinical Policies

EHS is working with stakeholders to modify the current 49 policies, to a more thematic based model in-order to improve the subjective and objective decision making of EHS paramedic clinicians. These will include: [1] EHS Extended Scope Policy, [2] EHS Resource Allocation Policy, [3] EHS Patient Care Policy, [4] EHS Transport Policy, [5] EHS No Transport Policy, and [6] EHS Inter-Facility Transport Policy. For inquires on clinical policies please contact: 902-424-1729.

EHS Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) and Protocols

CEC – Protocols

EHS Medications Documents

EHS Clinical Procedures

EHS is working with stakeholders to modify the current procedures, in-order to improve the subjective and objective decision making of EHS paramedic clinicians. For inquires on clinical policies please contact: 902-424-1729.