A potentially life-saving program used by the Puslinch Fire Department could soon be expanded to the rest of the county.
The Vial of Life program – in which participants store in the refrigerator a stickered tube that contains information about their medical history, medications, and any allergies – is currently used by the Puslinch department in the Mini Lakes park on Wellington County Road 34.
And Puslinch Fire Chief Dan Quinnell told council last week the program is a great benefit to first responders when patients are unable to speak for themselves.
It is generally estimated that in about ten per cent of all calls to which paramedics respond, patients are unable to communicate on their own, for a variety of reasons.
That fact alone was enough for other municipalities to adopt the program. In Simcoe County, for example, more than 20,000 of the vials have been distributed across the county over the last several years.
And Wellington County may be next.
Community Emergency Management Coordinator Linda Dickson said she is investigating the possibility of a county-wide Vial of Life program.
“We’re looking at it,” Dickson said in an interview, though she noted the process is still very much in the “preliminary” stages.
She said there will be some difficulty in adopting the program throughout the county because it is trademarked by the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON), a national health organization and registered charity.
The Vial of Life program, first trademarked by the VON in 1999 and partnered with Shoppers Drug Mart in 2003, has helped fire fighters and paramedics on the scene of emergencies cut down on the amount of time spent searching for basic medical and prescription information.
Having this information easily accessible can also save time for emergency room and hospital personnel.
