Pilot program in Barrie will make x-rays more accessible for LTC residents
Several local organizations are teaming up to make x-rays more accessible for residents in Barrie's long-term care homes.
"In the next 60 days, we will be piloting for one year, expediting patients coming from long-term care homes to come and have an x-ray. Typically they would have these done in their long-term care homes, and they would have to wait a few days to four weeks, so we're hoping that this will allow patients to get here faster," says RVH's imaging services director Heather Gillis.
Up to ten long-term care homes in Barrie will participate in the one-year pilot project announced by the province.
"It will eliminate long wait times. It will ensure timely transportation for those residents to the hospital to get that needed diagnostic imaging," says Jane Sinclair with the County of Simcoe.
Paramedic services will also be a big part of the program.
"An ambulance and paramedics will be assigned, and they will then pick up the resident from the long-term care home and transfer them to RVH, where they will be fast-tracked to get that diagnostic imaging so they can get the care they need and back to their home in a very timely way," says Sinclair.
RVH says other than hiring a registered practical nurse, they are simply looking at a different way to offer care.
"We will have a navigator meet the patient at the hospital, we'll bring them to medical imaging, register them have their x-ray done promptly, have our radiologist here to do the interpretation quickly to determine the next steps of care for the patient," says Gillis.
There are 26 long-term care homes in the county, ten in the city of Barrie, with just over 4000 beds combined. The pilot project will only operate in Barrie, but if successful, the program could be expanded in the coming years.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.