Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Planning and coordinating older patients' hospital leave is extremely complex. Many older patients in the hospital need close monitoring for a few days, even after they are stable. Doctors need to make sure their health is stable and that their medications are at the right levels. These patients could be sent home, where they usually recover more quickly, but many hospitals do not have strategies in place to monitor them. The Virtual Ward is a way of sending older patients home from the hospital to recover and keeping in touch with them. The first goal of this research project was to see if the Virtual Ward reduced emergency room visits at the Montreal Jewish General Hospital. This was achieved by comparing the number of emergency room visits for Virtual Ward patients and patients receiving normal care over the course of one year. The second goal of this research was to understand and describe how the Montreal Jewish General Hospital adopted the Virtual Ward, and explain how it could be adopted in different Quebec hospitals. This was achieved by holding focus groups with Montreal Jewish General Hospital staff and the hospital staff from 2 other Quebec hospitals, and describing the process and potential difficulties. This research provides evidence about the number of emergency room visits the Virtual Ward might help prevent, and provides insight into how the Virtual Ward could be adopted in different Quebec hospitals.