Rapid Response Nurses Provide Extra Care to Keep Frail Elderly Safe

Feb. 19, 2013 - PRLog -- News Release

Rapid Response Nurses Provide Extra Care to Keep Frail Elderly Safe

Mississauga, February 19, 2013: For many frail seniors, each time they leave the hospital, chances are they will be re-admitted within 30 days.  To alleviate this situation the Mississauga Halton CCAC has hired Rapid Response Nurses to care for high-risk patients with complicated clinical care needs by providing intensive support as they move from hospital to home.  

Mississauga Halton CCAC CEO, Caroline Brereton explains the importance of this new role.  "For our frail elderly patients, leaving hospital often means a return visit. This is not healthy for them, or for our health system. We recognize some of our patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia and congestive heart failure need more constant care coordination to ensure they thrive at home and are not readmitted to hospital."  

Six highly-experienced registered nurses will visit patients within 24 hours of leaving the hospital to ensure that medications are taken as instructed; follow-up doctors’ visits are made and kept; and ongoing medical assessments continue through constant monitoring during the crucial first 30 days after leaving hospital.

Katherine Manalaysay -- one of the MH CCAC’s Rapid Response Nurses -- is passionate about her new role, "Our aim is to help patients return home and live safely and independently by providing the consistent clinical care and community supports our patients need. As a Rapid Response Nurse, I have a responsibility for keeping patients safe and out of hospital. It is what our patients want, what we at the Mississauga Halton Community Care Access Centre want and what our hospital partners need."

Initially, Mississauga Halton CCAC is partnering with the medicine and cardiac units at Oakville Trafalgar Hospital and Trillium Health Partners – Mississauga Hospital to identify patients who need this level of care most.

The Mississauga Halton Community Care Access Centre delivers health care at home to 39,000 children and adults.

About Mississauga Halton CCAC

The Mississauga Halton CCAC coordinates in-home and community support services, information and referral, and long-term care placement. It is funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and serves a population of more than one-million residents in the communities of South Etobicoke, Mississauga, Oakville, Halton Hills and Milton.

The Mississauga Halton CCAC is funded through the Mississauga Halton Local Health Integration Network. Twitter: @MH_CCAC (http://twitter.com/#!/MH_CCAC)

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Media contact:

Bobbi Greenberg

Mississauga Halton CCAC

416 780-7909 or 1 877-336-9090 x 7909

Roberta.Greenberg@mh.ccac-ont.ca