Our Clinical Care Partners
Partnerships and networks enrich the fabric of knowledge and the effectiveness of all participants, leading to better care for patients. Here is a snapshot of other organizations we work with to ensure the quality of our care and, in turn, to improve the standard of care elsewhere.
Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS)
The Canadian Cardiovascular Society is the national voice for more than 1,500 cardiovascular physicians and scientists. The Institute’s physicians occupy leadership positions (serving for example on the Board of Directors), contribute to its guidelines for cardiovascular care to which all physicians in Canada abide, and attend the Society’s conferences as part of their professional development activities.
Cardiac Care Network of Ontario (CCN)
The Cardiac Care Network of Ontario is an advisory group to the Ministry of Health that works with hospitals to set provincial targets for cardiac care, and monitors quality and wait times for cardiac patients in the province. Any facility providing cardiac care must belong to the CCN; the Heart Institute is one of 17 participating sites. Institute staff sit on the Board, chair working committees, and are linked to the CCN through its regional coordinators.
Champlain CVD Prevention Network (CCPN)
The Champlain Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Network (CCPN) is an alliance of 15 health partners providing leadership to the Champlain CVD Prevention Strategy (CCPS), a five-year strategy to prevent heart disease and stroke in the Champlain District. The Heart Institute is one of the CCPN’s founding partners and houses its Project Management Office. Many of the Institute’s clinicians occupy leadership roles within the CCPN. The CCPS involves six large-scale initiatives, among which is the Ottawa Model for smoking cessation developed by the Institute. The Ottawa Model is expected to result in an additional 8,500 smokers in the region who successfully quit between 2006 and 2011.
Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN)
The Local Health Integration Network ensures that health services in Ottawa and parts of Eastern Ontario are well organized, adequately funded, and meet the needs of residents. As the sole provider of invasive cardiac procedures in the Champlain LHIN, the Heart Institute develops programs and shares them with other hospitals in the network to ensure continuity of care. Among these programs are Get with the Guidelines, a series of best practices for standardized care of patients with acute coronary syndrome, and the cardiac telecare program, which provides home-monitoring units that transmit a patient’s vital signs daily to the Institute. In a close relationship, the Institute advises the LHIN on the region’s requirements on a range of cardiac issues.
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)
The Heart Institute and Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario enjoy a collaborative relationship to support services in cardiac surgery, interventional cardiology, and electrophysiology, giving patients seamless access to the best expertise available in the region. The Institute’s Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic offers continuity of care to patients who graduate at age 18 from pediatric cardiac care at CHEO.
Community Care Access Centre (CCAC)
The local Champlain Care Access Centre helps people get the health care, personal support, and social services they need to recuperate from a hospital stay. The Heart Institute works with CCAC staff, patients, their families, care providers, and other health facilities to assess patients’ needs and make sure they have access to the right post-discharge care.
The Ottawa Hospital
The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) is a multi-campus academic health sciences centre, serving 1.5 million residents of Ottawa and Eastern Ontario, both in English and French. It provides care for more patients than any other hospital in Canada, and boasts specialty centres in cancer, heart, kidney, and vision care, as well as rehabilitation services.
Through a contractual agreement, The Ottawa Hospital provides the Heart Institute with a variety of medical and administrative support services, such as medical and non-medical personnel, financial and purchasing assistance, health records, information technology support, and housekeeping. As well, many of the Institute's research staff have teaching cross-appointments and collaborate on programs such as the hospital's Organ and Tissue Donation Program and Weight Management Clinic.
Regional Hospital Health Care Partners
As a member of the Champlain LHIN, the Heart Institute collaborates with other hospitals in the network to support cardiac patients and provide tertiary services and procedures. The Institute transfers these patients back to their own health care providers once they are discharged. Hospitals in the network include:
Almonte General Hospital
Arnprior and District Memorial Hospital
Bruyère Continuing Care (two hospitals)
Carleton Place & District Memorial Hospital
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario
Cornwall Community Hospital
Deep River and District Hospital
Glengarry Memorial Hospital
Hôpital Général de Hawkesbury & District General Hospital Inc.
Kemptville District Hospital
Hôpital Montfort
The Ottawa Hospital (three campuses)
Pembroke Regional Hospital
Queensway Carleton Hospital
Renfrew Victoria Hospital
St. Francis Memorial Hospital
Winchester District Memorial Hospital
Nunavut
As well, the Heart Institute has developed other specific relationships, one of which is as the centre for cardiac services for Nunavut in Canada’s North. Under this agreement, any Nunavummiuq needing a sophisticated cardiac procedure is brought here. Also, Institute physicians travel regularly to Nunavut to assess and manage patients on site.
Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care establishes the overall strategic direction and the priorities for the provincial health care system. The Heart Institute enjoys a very positive relationship with the Ministry, collaborating to provide a full range of cardiac care, from prevention to rehabilitation, working on innovative programs and taking direction on patient volume and targets.
Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion (MHP)
The goal of the Ministry of Health Promotion is to develop a culture of health and well-being in Ontario and contribute to the sustainability of the publicly funded health care system. The Heart Institute enjoys a strong working relationship with the Ministry. The Ministry funds the Institute’s Minto Prevention and Rehabilitation Centre to help more than 30 other hospitals in Ontario implement the Ottawa Model for smoking cessation. The Ottawa Model, developed at the Institute, is a systematic approach to the identification, treatment, and follow-up of hospitalized smokers.
Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN)
The Ontario Telemedicine Network is one of the largest such networks in the world. OTN helps deliver clinical care and professional education among health care providers and patients. The main goal of the Heart Institute’s Cardiac Telehealth Program is to improve access to specialized cardiac care for patients locally, provincially, and nationally. The Institute is among the front-runners in distance cardiac care. OTN provides the technical backbone for these services.
Ottawa EMS—STEMI
The Heart Institute’s STEMI protocol is a collaboration among health care leaders, paramedics, and all hospitals within the Champlain LHIN. The protocol mobilizes a large team, available 24/7, to reroute heart attack patients directly to the Institute, reducing emergency room congestion and wait times. Using the STEMI protocol, the Institute’s in-hospital deaths from heart attack dropped to below 5 per cent, compared with a rate of 10 per cent for patients treated using conventional approaches elsewhere.
Trillium Gift of Life Network
As Ontario's central organ and tissue donation agency, the Trillium Gift of Life Network is a key source of donor hearts to the Institute. The Network maintains waiting lists and allocates organs according to a fair, impartial, and arm’s-length system.
