QEII Halifax Infirmary Emergency Department is working with reduced space, which may lead to delays for those with less urgent concerns. Learn more here.
Starting Saturday, December 14, the entrance to the QEII Halifax Infirmary Emergency Department will change to 1840 Bell Road. Learn more.
Patients and their families are counting on Nova Scotia Health to bring them better and faster care, as close to home as possible.
Investing in people, partnerships, spaces, equipment, technology and new approaches to care is helping us make progress.
We are also transforming how we manage and deliver surgical care -- from referral to recovery -- to help us keep delivering the results patients need.
Below we spotlight some of the many initiatives, changes and investments our teams are leading to deliver more care sooner.
Electronic referrals help us better manage and coordinate referrals to surgeons and other services.
We can track referrals to avoid delays, help connect patients with faster options and keep patients and their healthcare provider in the loop.
Electronic referrals (eReferrals)
Nova Scotia Health provides a preoperative health history questionnaire to patients before most types of surgery.
It asks about things like medications or supplements, allergies and other health problems, mobility issues, past surgeries, and supports patients may need after surgery.
Using these questionnaires helps reveal if clinic visits or tests are needed before surgery.
By helping prepare patients for their surgery, this helps avoid cancellations and delays.
Changing how surgeries are booked has helped improve communication with patients and helps book the right patients first to avoid delays. By preventing cancellations and downtime it also helps reduce wait times and make better use of resources.
Nova Scotia Health centralized booking teams now work with surgeons and specialists who provide surgeries and endoscopies across the province to help support them with:
keeping wait lists accurate and up to date
Members of the Eastern Zone's centralized surgical and endoscopy booking team at their Membertou office
We support shared decision-making to help patients fully understand what to expect after surgery.
This helps patients choose what is best for them and avoid regrets after surgery.
Patient education, follow-ups and enhanced recovery programs support patients as they recover.
This helps to prevent complications, primary care visits and repeat trips to hospitals.
Efforts to improve quality help patients get the best experiences and results from their procedures. This includes avoiding complications, preventing additional surgeries, and helping patients return home as soon as possible after their procedure.
One of the ways Nova Scotia Health teams support quality is our participation in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP). A total of 11 Nova Scotia Health hospitals take part in NSQIP.
Through the program, registered nurses (surgical clinical nurse reviewers) follow-up on a sample of patients at each regional hospital, 30 days after their surgery and input information into the NSQIP database.
They gather information from patient charts, through follow-up with their health care providers and by speaking with patients themselves.
The NSQIP program requires that certain types of data be collected and entered in the system, but no information that can be used to identify patients is entered.
Reports received back from NSQIP help us look for areas in surgical care that can be improved.
By taking a closer look at who is delivery care, where care is delivered, and how care is offered, Nova Scotia Health teams are finding new ways to improve access to care.
Building teams
Building partnerships
Building new approaches to care
