The Virtual Emergency Care and Transfer Resource Service (VECTRS) is Manitoba’s centralized and coordinated source for clinical guidance and patient transport support. VECTRS supports continuity of care in urgent, emergent and critical situations when time is of the essence.
The service formally launched in May 2023 and has incrementally been scaling up operations since that time. VECTRS provides virtual support and consultation with an emergency specialist who can help with the care plan of critically ill patients. This expert advice helps to better determine appropriate transfer locations (or provide virtual clinical support to a rural or remote site and avoid a transport).
The virtual service is staffed by emergency physicians, Advanced Care Paramedics (ACP) and Advanced Practice Respiratory Therapists (APRT) to provide 24/7 emergency care and transport advice with the support of Inter-Facility Transport Coordinators (IFTCs) who initially answer the phone.
VECTRS clinical staff offer health-care providers immediate medical advice and specialist consultation for patients meeting the following criteria:
- Life, limb or vision threatening conditions
- Emergent or urgent conditions
- Require transfer to an Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit or Urgent Care Centre
IFT & Consult Requests
INTER-FACILITY TRANSFER (IFT) REQUESTS
For IFT requests requiring transport by ground ambulance, air ambulance, or stretcher service and the transport is:
| TO or FROM sites OUTSIDE Winnipeg call: | VECTRS | 204-949-4000 or 1-833-558-5501 (toll-free throughout Canada) |
| Between sites INSIDE Winnipeg continue to call: | WFPS IFT | 204-986-8410 |
Stretcher Service Patient Requirements
Updates
Effective Tuesday, July 14 2026, VECTRS will serve as the point of contact for all Manitoba Hyperbaric Oxygen Referrals and Consultations:
- Physicians requesting a Hyperbaric Consult call VECTRS: 204-989-4000
1-833-558-5501 (toll-free) - Hyperbaric Consult Requests are handled as a consult notification to the Shared Health Adult Transport Team Medical Director.
- The Referring Physician will be brought on to conference call with:
a. VECTRS EP or Clinician
b. Adult Transport Team Medical Director
c. Out-of-Province Transport Coordinator
Discussion will include benefits, risks, and feasibility with respect to timelines.
- If the decision is that an IFT is indicated, the Edmonton Hyperbaric Physician will be contacted and brought on to the conference call.
Overview of Edmonton Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBO) Service
• Edmonton provides the only critical care capable HBO service for Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories
• there are 3 mono-place chambers that can accommodate intubated patients requiring mechanical ventilation along with ECG and arterial line monitoring
• mono-place chamber considerations include:
o lack of any physical access to patient at depth
o limited chamber ports – maximum of 3 peripheral or central infusions
o only basic mechanical ventilator capabilities
o can accommodate foley catheters, chest tubes, pig tail catheters, but cannot accommodate other ports, drains or attachments, especially anything with metal components
o Dialysis and PICC lines must be locked off (generally are not rated for use under HBO conditions)
o pacemakers and ICD compatibility varies by device
• typical treatment for carbon monoxide (CO) toxicity is a three-dive protocol over 24 hours
• the Hyperbaric Physician can make transport recommendations for cabin altitude restrictions
The Manitoba Hyperbaric Oxygen Referral Process is available at this link.
On December 3, 2024 at 07:00:
- IFT requests: Health care providers (HCP) from sites outside of Winnipeg should call VECTRS directly for all ground and air IFT requests. This eliminates the need for the initial call to MTCC.
Unchanged: HCP from sites inside Winnipeg are to continue to call Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) Communications Centre (Dispatch). VECTRS triages all emergent and urgent IFT requests.
- Pre-Registration: Patients being transferred to a receiving site ED with the ED Information System (EDIS) will be pre-registered. The care providers at receiving site ED’s may access case information via the Expected Patients view on the EDIS status board.
- Consults (emergent and urgent): The goal is to reduce the number of calls and the time required for referring providers to arrange consults, accepting physicians, destinations, and transport arrangements. The other specialty services will be added in stages.
If you have any questions regarding these processes, please direct them to [email protected] and we will work to respond to all queries in a timely fashion.
Background
The Virtual Emergency Care and Transfer Resource Service (VECTRS) is the provincial coordination centre for:
- Urgent and emergent specialty consultation and virtual care
- Medical and resuscitation support for healthcare providers and paramedics
- Activation of teams providing stroke, trauma, STEMI, and other resuscitative care
- Inter-facility transfer (IFT) triage and prioritization
- Patient destination and consultation decision-making that will be supported on-site by Shared Health Patient Flow and Utilization
A vector is a Latin word that means carrier. Vectors have direction and magnitude.
Analogously, VECTRS will be directing patient consults and transfers to desired endpoints.
The other Canadian provinces have centres to coordinate consultation and patient flow. A few examples are Alberta’s Referral, Access, Advice, Placement, Information & Destination (RAAPID), BC’s Rapid Access to Consultative Expertise (RACE), and Ontario’s CritiCall (ON).
The significant disruption associated with the pandemic to normal health service delivery and processes led to Shared Health’s Emergency Response Services (ERS) being asked to develop a robust clinical patient consultation and transfer coordination centre for Manitoba, as an adjunct to the existing 911 and transport communications centres in Brandon (Medical Transportation Coordination Centre) and Winnipeg (Fire and Paramedic Service).
Planning began in 2023. Space acquisition and renovation, Digital Health and call centre projects, staffing, policy/process/workflow development, consultation/partnership with healthcare providers and agencies, and other requirements have advanced sufficiently to enable VECTRS to stage and progressively implement the intended services while ensuring safe and consistent provision of the implemented services in each stage.
Resources have allowed for a few services to be provided up to this point. Trauma team activations have resulted in earlier interventions and improved outcomes. Stroke 25 team activations at HSC have significantly improved multiple delays, with a 40 per cent reduction in the time from arrival to completion of CT imaging and improvements in the time to treatments. Ground IFTs in Winnipeg and air IFTs from northern Manitoba are now triaged and prioritized with improved movement of patients by acuity level.
VECTRS is staffed 24/7 with Emergency Physicians (EP), Advanced Practice Respiratory Therapists (APRTs), Advanced Care Paramedics (ACPs), Inter-Facility Transfer Coordinators (IFTCs). A Patient Flow Manager will be based at VECTRS in December to support flow coordination. VECTRS staff will play a progressively larger and crucial role in assisting healthcare providers in rural/remote EDs and non- ED facilities such as nursing stations.
On November 5, 2024, the triage and prioritization of all ground and air IFT requests within Manitoba was consolidated within VECTRS. The addition of VECTRS clinicians to the IFT triage and prioritization process will help better align patients with the care they need and the proper transport resource. These IFT process improvements through VECTRS has been in place for air transports from NRHA since September 2023. As well, VECTRS has been triaging all IFT upgrade requests, since July 2024
Resources
All recent memos, forms and files pertaining to VECTRS can be found below
Memos
- Manitoba Hyperbaric Oxygen Referral Process Through VECTRS – July 8, 2026
- Virtual Emergency Care & Transfer Resource Service – December 3, 2024 update
Appendixes
- Manitoba Hyperbaric Oxygen Referral Process – July 8, 2026
- Appendix 2 – Contacting VECTRS
- Appendix 3 – Transport Score Level
- Appendix 4 – Stretcher Service Patient Requirements
- Cardiology Consult Services – Oct. 1, 2026
SOPs