WHAT’S NEW
Perinatal transfers may be redirected during relocation of Sunnybrook's Women and Babies Program – Sept. 4 to 18, 2010
Patients of Sunnybrook’s Women and Babies Program, including High Risk Maternal and Neonatal ICU, will be relocating from Women's College Hospital to the Bayview site on Sunday Sept. 12th.
In order to reduce the number of unstable mothers and neonates requiring transfer on that date, the Program will not be able to accept perinatal transfers from Sept. 4th to 18th. This timeframe will be reassessed following the relocation date to determine if it may be shortened.
CritiCall Ontario will be working with hospitals throughout Ontario to help accommodate any potential increase in requests for perinatal consultation and transfer from the Greater Toronto Area, and hospitals that provide these services may receive more calls than usual during this transition period.
We appreciate your assistance.
CritiCall Ontario partners on pilot project for critically ill neonatal patients in the Southwest LHIN
CritiCall Ontario is partnering with hospitals in the Southwest LHIN on a pilot project for emergent neonatal care. For the duration of this six-month pilot, hospitals in the Southwest LHIN or that refer to the Southwest LHIN for neonatal care will be contacting CritiCall Ontario at 1-866-668-4357 directly if they require assistance caring for a neonatal patient. For more information about this pilot, please click on the following documents or contact Leanne Yonev at leanne.yonev@criticall.org or 289 396 7000 ext. 7010:
Information for participating hospitals
Poster for participating hospitals
Project implications for hospitals outside of the Southwest LHIN
FAQs
CritiCall Ontario introduces redesigned Bed & Resource Capacity Management System
On Tuesday, April 13th we will be introducing CritiCall Ontario’s redesigned Bed and Resource Capacity Management System (previously known as The Bed Registry). In addition to the new name, we have incorporated a new look and a few features to make it easier for you to navigate the screens. What we have not done is change the way you use the system.
Here are some of the new features:
• Streamlined menu at the top of the screen for easier navigation
• Pop up windows that allow you to access the information you need without navigating away from the screen you are using. These include hospital directory, on-call information, data definitions, and more.
• New data sets including: Occupancy rate, Surge Indicator, Calculated fields
• Comprehensive document library
• Colour coding to provide visual indicators of occupancy / surge levels
The real utility of this system, which has been redesigned based on input from hospital staff and other stakeholders throughout Ontario, comes from the commitment of each unit to keeping all of the fields up to date so that information is readily available to the hospital and CritiCall Ontario.
For more information, please contact the Client Relations Manager for your area.
Leadership announcement for CritiCall Ontario
On behalf of Dr. Bernard Lawless, Provincial Lead, Critical Care and Trauma
We are pleased to announce the selection of a new Executive Director and a new Medical Director for CritiCall Ontario effective April 1, 2010. Ontario’s CritiCall program is a vital part of the provincial healthcare system. CritiCall provides a ‘one number to call’ emergency referral service to Ontario hospitals, by connecting referring physicians to the consulting/receiving physician with the goal of providing consultation or transferring the patient to the nearest appropriate hospital if required. CritiCall Ontario will benefit from the experience and leadership that Donna Thomson, Executive Director, and Dr. Desmond Bohn, Medical Director, will bring to their new positions.
Donna Thomson RN, MBA, joined CritiCall Ontario in October 2009 on an interim basis and will be staying on as Executive Director. Donna brings a wealth of clinical, administrative and leadership experience to the organization. She has held progressive leadership positions in a number of clinical settings, including emergency departments and critical care. She has also participated in several provincial and LHIN initiatives including working for the Joint Policy and Planning Committee as the province’s MIS Coordinator during the implementation period. As a co-investigator on several funded research projects and co-author of numerous publications, Donna is an active contributor to ongoing discussions on the effective and efficient use of health care resources. Prior to the recent merger of Hamilton Health Sciences and St. Peter’s Hospital, Donna served as the Senior VP Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Executive for St. Peter’s Hospital.
Dr. Desmond Bohn, MB BCh FFARCS, MRCP, FRCPC will be taking on the position of Medical Director for CritiCall Ontario. Dr. Bohn is the Chief of the Department of Critical Care Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children and a Professor in the Departments of Anaesthesia and Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. A graduate of the National University of Ireland, Dr. Bohn has an impressive background in both medicine and research. He has been working at the Hospital for Sick Children for the past 27 years and is also the immediate past-president of the Paediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society. At the provincial level, Dr. Bohn is the lead for the Provincial Paediatric Critical Care Response Team Project and a member of the LHIN leadership group for critical care in Ontario. A seasoned researcher, Dr. Bohn has published over 155 papers in peer reviewed medical journals and contributed to multiple book chapters. He serves on the editorial board of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, and is a regular contributor to both national and international symposia.
Please join us as we welcome them to their new roles with CritiCall Ontario.
Report generation and distribution delayed due to technical issues
CritiCall Ontario is suspending the release of all reports for January 2010. This is due to technical issues which may be interfering with the integrity of the data collected during this time period. We are currently working with our service provider to address this issue so we can ensure the data we provide to all of our stakeholders is accurate.
At this time, we do not know how long it will take to resolve this issue. We will not be resuming the release of reports until we have resolution.
We will continue to keep you updated and once a solution is in place, you will receive reports for January and any additional months affected by this service disruption.
We deeply regret this inconvenience and appreciate your ongoing patience.
If you have questions or require additional information, please contact your CritiCall Ontario Account Manager.
ExPCCRT initiative captures top honours in System Innovation category at 2009 CAPHC conference
CritiCall Ontario, The Ontario Paediatric Critical Care Response Team Working Group and The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, took top honours in the System Innovation category at the 2009 Canadian Association of Paediatric Health Centres (CAPHC) conference for a collaborative poster and presentation on the Extramural Paediatric Critical Care Response Team (ExPCCRT) initiative. This initiative is part of Ontario’s Critical Care Strategy and allows physicians and clinicians throughout Ontario to access high quality critical care consultations and/or referrals for their emergent or critically ill paediatric patients by calling CritiCall Ontario. Physicians are then connected to a paediatric intensivist at the most appropriate Paediatric Academic Health Sciences Centre so they can work together to determine the best course of action for the patient.
The poster and presentation highlighted increasing utilization rates since the launch of this service in October 2007 and offered an overview of how the ExPCCRT works to provide access to high quality paediatric critical care to all residents of Ontario, regardless of where they live within the province.
Click here to view the poster.
CritiCall Ontario partners on ENITS to improve access to neurosurgical care
CritiCall Ontario is collaborating on a provincial initiative to develop and implement a structure for emergent neurosurgical consultations and patient transfers. This work is based on recommendations made by the Neurosurgery Expert Panel to focus on five priority areas that will help improve access to neurosurgical consultations and access to this type of care.
The Emergency Neurosurgery Image Transfer System (ENITS) is one key component of this initiative as it enables CT images to be viewed remotely anywhere in the province by neurosurgeons for the purposes of consultation. The system is already being used in a number of hospitals in Ontario with consultations facilitated through CritiCall Ontario. The overall goal is to make sure neurosurgical resources are being used as effectively as possible by providing more comprehensive and timely consultations and, as a result reduce the number of unnecessary patient transfers to neurosurgical centres.
ENITS was launched in late 2008 in collaboration with the Neurosurgery Expert Panel, the Critical Care Secretariat and hospitals in LHINS 1 and 2. Since then, more hospitals have come on line and over the course of the next several months, 130 hospitals throughout Ontario will be connected to ENITS.
Click here for an ENITS Fact Sheet.
CritiCall Ontario Quick Guide – a reference for physicians or designates calling CritiCall Ontario
CritiCall Ontario is a physician-to-physician resource, however, we know that every minute counts when it comes to critical care. For that reason, as of December 29, 2008, our Call Centre will accept calls from physicians or a designate. The Most Responsible Physician must still be immediately available to speak with a consultant specialist when our agents call back, but in the interim, a designated health care professional can initiate the call to CritiCall Ontario and help us collect the necessary patient information.
To help you better understand this change to our service, we have created a Quick Guide for your reference. Please click here to access your copy.
Extramural Paediatric Critical Care Response Team Survey
The Extramural Paediatric Critical Care Response Team service is designed to ensure all children in Ontario have access to high quality tertiary level critical care by providing community emergency physicians and paediatricians with support and access to critical care resources. This initiative is part of the provincial Critical Care Strategy and has been running since October 1, 2007 thanks to participation from Academic Health Science Centres with Level III paediatric critical care services and CritiCall Ontario, which has been providing physicians telephone access to a paediatric intensivist 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 1-800-668-HELP.
This survey is designed to assess how well this program is working. Please take a few minutes to answer seven questions so we can continue to improve the Extramural Paediatric Critical Care Response program. Click here to begin.
HELP Sheets for using CritiCall Ontario
A series of HELP Sheets outlining CritiCall's role and the scope of mandate has been prepared. They will also streamline the process for physicians and the CritiCall Call Centre when trying to access the most appropriate care for patients. Feedback from hospital stakeholders, LHIN Critical Care and Emergency Department leads, the Critical Care Secretariat and the CritiCall Medical Directors was incorporated in the final documents, available for download below.
CritiCall Ontario HELP Sheet for USA transfers
Paediatric CCRT-MD now available to hospital physicians caring for critically ill children in Ontario
Now hospital-based physicians caring for critically ill children in Ontario have telephone access to a paediatric intensivist 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling CritiCall’s central number:
For more information about the PCCRT, please click on the links below.