St. John’s Rehab Supports Sustainability and Spread of Rehab Intensity: A Local Example of Cross-Regional Sharing

As of April 1, 2015, measurement of stroke rehabilitation intensity (RI) has been mandated by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care for all inpatient stroke rehab programs and integrated stroke units across Ontario.  In striving towards the best practice target of 180 min of intensive face-to-face one-on-one therapy per day per patient, some rehab facilities have made significant changes to enhance RI provision and have been sharing their success stories with other sites.  The Sunnybrook – St. John’s Rehab A3 Neuro/Oncology inpatient stroke team has been one of the leading teams in Toronto to implement and share their strategies.

The St. John’s Rehab stroke team shared their rehab intensity strategies with sites within the Central South Regional Stroke Network.

On April 28, 2016, the St. John’s Rehab stroke team presented their RI strategies at the Rehab Intensity Workshop hosted by the Central South Regional Stroke Network. This presentation was led by an interprofessional team that included: Mila Bishev (patient care manager), Kalaa Chockalingam (occupational therapist), Stephanie Durocher (speech-language pathologist), Alison Lightbound (registered nurse and team leader), Wendy Lopez (registered dietitian), Dr. Barathi Sreenivasan (physiatrist), and Gina Lam (physiotherapist).  Participants at this workshop included clinical leads from the Regional Rehabilitation Centre at Hamilton Health Sciences, Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre, Grand River Hospital – Freeport Site, St. Joseph’s Health Centre Guelph, Joseph Brant Hospital, Cambridge Memorial Hospital, and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton.  In follow-up to this workshop, managers from rehab centres within the Central South Regional Stroke Network shadowed the St. John’s Rehab stroke team on June 17th to learn more about their strategies.

Managers from the Central South Regional Stroke Network shadowed the St. John’s Rehab stroke team to learn about their rehab intensity strategies.

Overall, participants from the Central South Regional Stroke Network valued the opportunities to learn from St. John’s Rehab and plan to share the information and learnings with their teams to inform local planning.  The St. John’s Rehab stroke team also valued these experiences and look forward to future collaborations with these sites.

Initiatives such as these are extremely valuable in supporting sustainability and spread of RI initiatives. As there are many other examples of cross-regional sharing to support RI, we would like to hear from you.  If you have a success story to share, please email the Toronto Stroke Networks at moc.ekortsotnull@ofni.

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