Building a Bridge to Emergency Care

Serving approximately 1,000 patients a month—and steadily increasing—the Gerald Sheff & Shanitha Kachan Emergency Department is the largest of its kind in Canada. In the fall of 2017, CAMH launched the Drop-in Bridging Clinic to ensure that every visitor to the emergency department gets the care they need. Initial results have been very promising, suggesting the service is already easing congestion and supporting follow-up care.

After triage, people who arrive at the emergency department with less-acute needs can be sent to the Bridging Clinic to receive quality care —freeing significant resources for more urgent patients.

Inpatients preparing for discharge can visit the Bridging Clinic for follow-up care when they need it—without an appointment—anytime during its weekday operating hours. In its first three months, the Clinic had over 600 visits.

One of the goals of the service is to reduce the need for patients to be readmitted to CAMH. The impact was immediate: In the first full month that the clinic was operational, the readmission rate was reduced by more than half.

“It helps people avoid falling through the cracks,” says Natalie Quick, Manager of Access CAMH and Ambulatory Services in the Acute Care Program.

That includes people like Charlie Cummings, who came to the emergency department with life-threatening depression.