The last twelve months will not be forgotten soon by more than 12,000 men and women who work at TOH. For citizens of Ottawa, like all Canadians, 2009/2010 was a memorable year in health-care.  In addition to overcoming H1N1, our teams achieved the following milestones:

H1N1

Stories that captivate the public often tend to occur in hospital settings, and last year was no exception. The entire hospital—acting as one united team—worked together during the H1N1 influenza epidemic that dominated news headlines.

Everyone at TOH contributed to serving the public through clinics, providing welcome information or directions, assuming extra duties behind the scenes, or even offering a hand sanitizer at the door.

During the course of the crisis, TOH provided 29,994 doses of the H1N1 vaccine!

To the people of TOH who fought this battle and won, we offer sincere gratitude. To the public who turned to us during the crisis, we thank you for trusting us with your health-care.  Read more/Watch video

Mohs surgery: maximum cure, minimal loss

The Mohs Surgery Clinic is the first clinic of its kind in the region. Mohs surgery is named for Dr. Frederic Mohs, who developed the process to treat the most common types of skin cancer. The process is less invasive than other surgeries and patients get a high cure rate and much lower rate of normal tissue loss. What makes this clinic different from other skin cancer clinics is the on-site laboratory. A dermatologist can remove one small layer of tissue at a time, examining each before removing the next, until all traces of the tumour are gone.

Quality Coordinators

TOH hired eight Quality Coordinators to assist with quality improvement initiatives and patient safety at TOH. Four more Quality Coordinators, two in Diagnostic Imaging and two in Surgery, will soon be hired. The coordinators will assist with quality initiatives in Diagnostic Imaging, as well as with the recently acquired National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) in the Department of Surgery. Programs with Quality Coordinators already underway include: Nephrology, Mental Health, Oncology, Emergency and Critical Care, Rehabilitation and Ambulatory Care, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Endocrinology and Metabolism.

The new positions join other corporate and nursing quality coordinators working to improve quality at TOH.

Document Scanning Introduced

A Document Management and Imaging (DMI) application was launched across TOH. This project is one of many e-health initiatives transforming patient care at The Ottawa Hospital. Documents created during patient visits are now scanned and available electronically.

Technology Today

A new wireless hand-held scanner is being used to replenish goods on supply carts and in nursing stations throughout the hospital. If an employee notices an item is low in stock, he scans the barcode item number and enters into the system how many remain on the cart. The system decides if this item should be replenished and if so, tells the employee the quantity needed.

Gynecology Oncology Diagnostic Assessment Unit

The Gynecology Oncology Diagnostic Assessment Unit opened at the Shirley E. Greenberg Women’s Health Center. The unit offers a coordinated, centralized point of entry where referrals are pre-screened by an Assessment Coordinator (a Registered Nurse with additional Certification in Oncology Nursing) and triaged according to appropriate criteria requirements. Additional tests are requested according to evidence-based guidelines prior to the appointment to ensure all information is available to make a treatment decision on the initial visit.

The Ottawa Hospital Inter-Professional Model of Patient Care (TOH IPMPC©)

The Ottawa Hospital Inter-Professional Model of Patient Care© (TOH IPMPC©) is a guide to organize the delivery of patient care among health-care professionals from different disciplines, taking into account their competencies, collaborative patient-centred practice and The Ottawa Hospital’s (TOH) strategic directions.

IPMPC© is the first of its kind and having been created by patients and their health-care providers, it’s unique in its flexibility to be implemented hospital wide.

Each team reflects on the guiding principles and develops an action plan to address areas, such as Inter-Professional Care, Collaboration, Communication and Teamwork. 

Inter-professional collaborative care, has impacted how health-care professionals communicate by increasing efficiency, allowing patients and family to receive safe and competent care from the most appropriate health-care providers, as outlined in the second guiding principle.

IPMPC© is innovative and will offer as a model to other academic health centres across Canada.

Half of the 103 innovative teams were implemented last year and the IPMPC© will be offered as a model to other academic health centres across Canada.

TOH Chest Diseases Centre

The Ottawa Hospital Chest Diseases Centre, the first of its kind in Canada, officially opened in January. Its unique interdisciplinary team has skills to diagnose and treat head, neck, and chest diseases in the same clinic. The team includes thoracic surgeons, respiratory physicians, ear, nose and throat specialists, specialized nurses, speech-language pathologists, and allied health professionals. Bringing all of these experts together in one central location will help to deliver excellent care to patients and encourage knowledge sharing and collaboration among team members. It will enhance clinical teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels by allowing students to access many different kinds of experts in one place.

Stroke Code team sets national record

On January 23, a patient admitted to the Queensway Carleton Hospital developed sudden onset left-sided weakness and fell to the floor. The staff recognized stroke symptoms and contacted The Ottawa Hospital’s stroke team. Ottawa paramedics transported the patient to the Civic Campus, where a Stroke Code had been called.

The patient was registered, assessed, scanned, and started on a clot-busting drug within a Canadian record time of 14 minutes! The time from onset of stroke to treatment was two hours and four minutes, which is outstanding. Over the days following the stroke, the patient made gains in arm and leg strength and started to walk, a good sign for recovery. Congratulations to all involved in this and other Stroke Codes. TOH is a world-class stroke centre, due to the speed, efficiency and dedication of the Emergency Department staff and Stroke Code teams.

A partnership to support our troops

The Ottawa Hospital expanded its partnership with the Canadian Forces (CF) Health Services Group and will bring a new state-of-the-art virtual reality system to the Rehabilitation Centre. The system is used for diagnosis, rehabilitation, and evaluation of the human balance system and works in real time. It uses 180-degree, room-sized screens, along with a rotating motion platform, a computer-controlled treadmill, a motion analysis system, a safety harness, and 3D software allowing patients to move in three dimensions.

Wounded soldiers from all over Canada will have priority access to the virtual reality system when they need physical or mental rehabilitation. Of course, patients at the Rehabilitation Centre will also have access to the system, which allows clinicians to simulate environments that are not currently possible in other rehabilitation settings in Canada. It will be used in a variety of research projects including driving simulation and motion analysis.

Improving care in the Emergency Department

New research by Dr. Ian Stiell could greatly improve how patients with potential neck injuries are cared for in the emergency department. Millions of people receive neck x-rays every year, even though fractures are only detected in two per cent of cases.

Dr. Stiell, inventor of the Ottawa Ankle Rule, developed the Canadian C-Spine Rule to predict which patients really do require a neck x-ray and which patients can be safely sent on for other treatments. The Rule has been proven safe and effective in dozens of studies, but the current study is the first to show that a simple and affordable promotion campaign can actually change physicians’ approach, and reduce the use of unnecessary x-rays in a real-world hospital setting.

New ways to use data

The Ottawa Hospital, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the University of Ottawa have opened a new sub-unit of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). The facility is based at TOH’s Civic Campus and is called ICES@uOttawa. It will give Ottawa researchers access to highly secure patient data from all across Ontario, so they can investigate factors affecting health and develop approaches to improve treatment, prevention and diagnosis.

TOH and Canadian Blood Services Partners for Life

In 2009, TOH signed on to participate in the Partners for Life program with Canadian Blood Services (CBS). Partners for Life is a nationwide program for communities and corporations that allows us to set goals for donations on a hospital-wide basis. Last year TOH pledged 200 blood donations as an organization, which is enough to save or impact 600 Canadian lives! TOH was recently recognized at a special event for not only meeting, but exceeding our goal and donating 235 units of blood—118 per cent of our goal.