London Health Sciences Centre helps to care for many persons requiring chronic mechanical ventilation within the South West LHIN. These are individuals who enter our hospital system from a variety of access sites. This may occur through:
A) Our critical care units ,
B) ‘At Risk’ Outpatient clinics, or
C)Transition from Paediatrics.
Although individuals may have different reasons for requiring mechanical ventilation e.g., different types of respiratory and neuromuscular disease, they all have chronic alveolar hypoventilation. Central to our system of care has been the establishment of a interdisciplinary outpatient process designed to regularly follow individuals requiring chronic ventilator care (either invasive or non-invasive)and those ‘at risk’ of developing respiratory failure. Dedicated resources, both technological and human, are needed to provide these individuals access to specialized respiratory (and related) care needs, as close to home as possible, or ideally at home.
