New unit at Ottawa Heart Institute helping patients stay out of emergency departments

New unit at Ottawa Heart Institute keeps heart patients out of the ER. We tell you about its impact.

A new health unit at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute is having a significant impact in reducing visits to the emergency department across the nation’s capital.

Since it opened in March 2024, the Acute Cardiac Triage Unit (ACTU) has administered more than 3,000 appointments and provided a place for cardiac patients to receive assessments, tests and interventions without the need to wait hours in hospital.

The Heart Institute says providing timely care for patients needing urgent attention, but not necessarily hospital admission, is reducing the pressure on regional ERs.

“Before, we used to send these patients to the emergency department because we didn’t have what my director would say ‘a safe place to land,’” said Lindsay MacArthur, the advanced practice nurse for cardiology at the Heart Institute, in an interview on CTV Morning Live.

“Now, we actually have that place where we can monitor them. The staffing, the hours, it’s been great.

The ACTU can support inpatient and outpatient care. The unit can do everything from ECGs and X-rays to blood tests and medication management.

“We did see the need. We saw a gap where we could fill is to have a place to host these patients. As soon as we opened it, we were so pleased and surprised at how many people utilized it and how well we can utilize it,” MacArthur said.

MacArthur says the role of education is a big part of the unit’s goals. She says patients can often be overwhelmed by the amount of information they receive after a cardiac event or surgery, requiring personalized care during recovery.

“We’re telling them you need to watch your fluid, you need to watch your salt, you need to have sternal precautions, you need to do all of these things, and it can be extremely overwhelming. Even if you involve a key learner, sometimes things go in one ear and out the other,” she said.

“It’s a great point to reinforce that education. They can come in, you can give them all the education again, our nurses can take the time to do that.”

MacArthur says patients will notice a difference by being able to see doctors on a same-day or next-day basis, rather than needing to wait for a family doctor appointment or wait in the ER for hours.

“We can get all their follow up and testing in a really expedited manner,” she said.

Three of Ottawa’s hospitals have some of the longest wait times in Ontario, according to the latest statistics from Health Quality Ontario.

All Ottawa hospitals continue to exceed the provincial target for the average length of stay in the ER for low-urgent patients not admitted to hospital.

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Josh Pringle

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