By: Sally McMackin, Program Director, Provincial LTV Program, West Park Healthcare Centre
A new collaborative provincial strategy is now in place to utilize the expertise of four specialized healthcare centres to better support the needs of ventilator-assisted individuals, their caregivers and the organizations that serve them across Ontario.
In 2021, West Park Healthcare Centre was asked to partner with three hospitals: Michael Garron Hospital, London Health Sciences and The Ottawa Hospital, to develop and implement a Provincial Long-Term Ventilation (LTV) Strategy. The Strategy will:
Help keep ICU beds available for those most in need of them.
Improve the quality of life for people requiring long-term ventilation by allowing these individuals to receive specialized care closer to home.
Reduce unnecessary emergency department visits.
Make available expertise in LTV across the province to enrich healthcare for Ontarians.
Coordinate existing resources from across the province to support better patient care.
The Strategy will be implemented through a hub and spoke model that enables centres with expertise to support local providers in serving the needs of ventilator-assisted individuals within their local region.
The Central hub (West Park Healthcare Centre and Michael Garron Hospital) will support 46 hospitals in Central Ontario, including but not limited to Humber River Hospital, Trillium Health Partners, Southlake Regional Health Centre, Scarborough Health Network, Unity Health, and University Health Network.
The West hub (London Health Sciences) will support 16 hospitals in Western Ontario, including and not limited to, Grey Bruce Healthcare Services, Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance, and Woodstock Hospital.
The East hub (The Ottawa Hospital) will support 19 hospitals in Eastern Ontario, including but not limited to Cornwall Community Hospital and Kingston General Hospital.
Major accomplishments of the provincial strategy, include the development of a centralized online provincial portal for patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals to access information such as resources and education to support those requiring long-term ventilation as well as those with complex respiratory conditions who are at risk of requiring it in the future. Developed in partnership across the sites, this portal is designed to be dynamic, evolving as new information becomes available. It will also house data related to the Provincial strategy including a public-facing dashboard of key LTV indicators.
The portal is desktop, tablet and mobile friendly and was made available in October, 2022 at www.ontariolongtermventilation.com