Baycrest

continued from page 9 Rehabilitation Program Having a healthy mind and body is fundamental to successful aging. Following a serious illness — a stroke, for example — appropriate and timely rehabilitation, both physical and cognitive, is key to helping patients return to health and independent living whenever possible. The Rehabilitation Program combines both high- and low-intensity rehabilitation for patients on one floor of Baycrest Hospital. This allows our students to experience the continuum of rehabilitation care to acquire their competencies, and allows our scientists to conduct research that spans the rehabilitation care continuum. Complex and Specialized Geriatric Care Program This Program is the hub for developing and delivering new models of integrated, interprofessional collaborative care. Our expertise in the care of frail, elderly individuals has historically placed Baycrest at the forefront in this field. We have combined the complex care program with the specialized geriatrics program Acute care program benefits seniors and the system Since its introduction in 2009, an innovative program at Baycrest Hospital, Ben and Hilda Katz Building, has provided highly specialized care to more than 500 patients and saved the Ontario health-care system an estimated $9.3 million. The Acute Care and Transition (ACT) Unit provides an inpatient 10 we deliver to seniors as outpatients or in their homes. The integration of these two services allows our health-care providers to follow patients through the various levels of wellness and illness across the continuum. Seniors benefit from the program through better access to timely and appropriate care, reduced wait times for care, and being able to live longer in communities rather than in institutions. The centres and programs are interdisciplinary because, as Dr. Paul Katz explains, "it is a basic paradigm of treating geriatric patients that you need a team." Katz is vice-president of Medical Services and chief medical officer at Baycrest. "These patients problems are complex and bio-psychosocial," he adds. "For example, the physician is not going to know all of the social issues that come up with a patient – they have expertise in the medical side, but they need access to this other expertise as well, so it is about working together." Programs and services also focus on the specific needs of particular program that diverts patients from hospital emergency departments. Patients with heart problems, pneumonia, infections or other acute conditions are assessed, treated and monitored in the ACT Unit by an interdisciplinary team of geriatric care experts. Patients are admitted from across the Baycrest campus, from the community at large, and from hospital emergency departments. The ACT model of care is more appropriate for these patients than admitting them to acute care hospitals or having them wait for 2010/11 Baycrest and Baycrest Foundation Annual Report patient populations. For example, the Rehabilitation Program will include the full continuum of care services from inpatient to outpatient rehabilitation. Speaking to the cognitive neuroscience component of the new health sciences platform, Baycrest's vice-president of Research Dr. Randy McIntosh points out that the new organizational structure means "people who rely on Baycrest will know that we provide excellent clinical care, but also do the latest and greatest research to make sure that their clinical care is at the forefront." Because "Baycrest is an academic health science centre, the promise we have made to the people we serve is that the care they receive will be top notch," says Karima Velji. "That means when a patient comes to Baycrest, they should know that the assessments and interventions we provide here are like no other." See the 2010/11 Baycrest Research Annual Report for more information on the integral role scientific discovery and its application plays in the Next Generation of Baycrest. care in busy emergency rooms, a stressful experience for the frail elderly and costly for the system. The ACT program has so far diverted more than 400 emergency department visits and close to 400 acute care admissions, and has now been expanded for greater system impact. ACT partnerships have been developed with provincial long-term care homes such as Villa Colombo, and with geriatric emergency management nurses in acute care hospitals, geriatric assessment teams, and community outreach teams.

• Cover