North York's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is the first hospital in Toronto to introduce a pre-triage system, meaning patients will immediately be assessed for the severity of their symptoms when they enter the emergency department.
Patients are no strangers to being triaged, which allows hospital personnel to determine how quickly they need medical care.But the full triage process, which includes taking a patient's vital signs and questioning their medical background, can take 15 minutes.In a busy emergency room, especially when several patients come in at once, that can create a backlog.Adding the pre-triage step ensures patients needing immediate care are bumped to the top of the list without delay.Sunnybrook worked with the Cleveland Clinic, considered an innovator in health care, to develop the process. Founded in 1921 by four doctors with a vision of providing outstanding patient care, the not-for-profit Cleveland Clinic is based in Ohio and operates other health care facilities, including the Cleveland Clinic Canada in downtown Toronto.The goal of pre-triage is to reduce wait times and enhance patients' overall experience."Working with the Cleveland Clinic has been a highly beneficial experience for our times in the emergency department," Sunnybrook president Dr. Barry McLellan said."Based on feedback from our staff and those involved from Cleveland, there has been a great sense of collegiality and willingness to do whatever it takes to improve the experience for patients and their families. We have learned from them and they have learned from us, which is exactly what we wanted to achieve."The two organizations plan to work together in the future to find other ways of improving patient care.