WHAT’S NEW
CritiCall Ontario to continue facilitating calls for hospitals within and referring to the Southwest LHIN for critical neonatal care
The pilot phase of the Southwest LHIN/CritiCall Ontario neonatal project is now complete but the new process will stay in place for hospitals within and referring to the Southwest LHIN for critical neonatal care.
The project, which began in April 2010, provided physicians within and who refer to the Southwest LHIN for critical neonatal care with the new option of calling CritiCall Ontario for assistance. CritiCall Ontario then contacted the designated physician at London Health Sciences or St. Joseph’s Health Care London to provide a consultation and accept a referral if necessary.
The goal of the pilot was to streamline the process of accessing support for critically ill neonatal patients and to ensure a physician consultation was provided before transport resources were dispatched. This is particularly important in the Southwest LHIN where a single transport team is responsible for both neonatal and paediatric patient transfers.
Preliminary feedback on the pilot indicates the process has worked well for participants. Data collected by participating organizations during the pilot phase of this project (April 2010 to March 31, 2011) will now be used to create a more formal evaluation of this approach.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Joanne Dempsey at (289) 396-7000 ext. 7577 or joanne.dempsey@criticall.org
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 Frequently Asked Questions about ENITS.
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.