Strata Health Implements Centralized Pathway for COVID-19 Long-Term Ventilation Units Across the Greater Toronto Area

TORONTO, ON (June 3, 2020) – Strata Health Solutions, the leading provider of patient navigation technology, implemented a new critical care pathway to help a group of 19 hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) centralize and standardize transitions of care from intensive care units (ICU) to one of three designated COVID-19 specialist units for long-term ventilator support.

The ICU in an acute care hospital is not an ideal setting for extended stays, and COVID-19 patients often need critical care for weeks. Moving patients out of the ICU and into more appropriate specialist units improves safety, comfort, and health outcomes. As part of the COVID-19 plan and response, the 19 hospitals pooled their resources and enlisted Strata Health to automate the pathway.

Using the Toronto Central and Central LHINs’ existing Resource Matching and eReferral (RM&R) solution managed by UHN Connected Care, Strata Health rapidly configured and deployed a single integrated eReferral pathway for participating ICU wards. The pathway enables all patients who require long-term ventilation to be referred into a central hub, responsible for waitlisting and navigating patients to the most appropriate of the three designated long-term ventilation units.

“Strata Health is honoured to support our partners in the GTA as they respond to COVID-19. Our existing footprint has allowed us to roll out an automated pathway, and we’re thrilled at how quickly the teams responded to the clinicians’ needs,” explained Peter Smith, CEO of Strata Health Solutions. “It was great for our team to do a small part to help in these challenging times.”

“A need for the creation of a centralized Long Term Ventilator (LTV) care unit arose, as an organized and transparent approach to the management of the LTV patient movement. Strata and the UHN Connected Care team met all of our needs and were able to quickly make changes. I was impressed with the team’s attentiveness and understanding of the urgency for the automated management,” explained Dejana Veljko, Senior Consultant, System Flow and Capacity, TC LHIN. “This project was implemented with ease thanks to Strata and the UHN Connected Care team.”

Soon, an external portal will be added that connects the hospitals to additional sites from other LHINs, opening up greater access to long-term ventilation units, without having to undergo a full onboarding process. Automation has greatly streamlined these transitions of care and provides real-time insight into the status of all vacancies, matches, and the overall waitlist for relevant clinical and executive stakeholders.

About UHN Connected Care – Known for delivering sustainable change management programs, UHN Connected Care was born out of a variety of province-wide projects focused on the healthcare experience as a whole. We have worked with and for stakeholders across the care continuum and garnered strong regional knowledge, including electronic referrals, electronic health records and emergency management systems. Using an integrated project and change management delivery approach, we continue to look to the future to see where healthcare needs to go, seeking solutions within and beyond digital health to enable what we want to do. For more information, visit www.uhnconnectedcare.ca.

About Strata Health Solutions – With almost 20 years of experience in the health technology sector, Strata Health is the leading provider of intelligent, digital tools for resource allocation, patient transitions, and patient flow innovation across the care continuum. Strata Health supports healthcare clients on three continents, helping over 12 million patients worldwide get the care they need faster. Strata’s software solutions are improving the healthcare experience for patients, clinicians, and health jurisdictions around the world. For more information, visit www.stratahealth.com.

For media requests, please contact: Lauren Archibald Alchemy Communications Inc. lauren@alchemycommunications.ca 403.819.9792

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