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With the holidays approaching, our Member Foundations are seeking support from the community with their annual Holiday Appeals. Your donations can help provide necessary programs and services to members of our community and support the transformation of local patient care. Check out the 2022 holiday campaigns below to learn more.

When you’re in hospital, you want to feel better — fast. Advancements in technology at Ross Memorial are transforming how we care for patients, at the bedside and in every aspect of care at the Hospital.   

It’s faster, safer, and helps you get the best care possible. But it’s not covered by provincial funding.

Physicians like Dr. Sara-Lynn Francis want the best for local patients. We know you do, too.  

Please help with a donation to the Ross Memorial Hospital Foundation’s Holiday Appeal. From doctors to donors, We Are The Ross.  

At the core of Community Care is one fundamental idea: neighbours helping neighbours.

By donating to the Community Care Foundation this holiday season, you are contributing to the availability of critical services throughout our shared community.

Your donations will support our unfunded or under-funded programs and make all the difference for clients who rely on Community Care.

Thank you for your past and ongoing support. To make a donation visit donate.ccckl.ca today or call 705-325-7323.

Our Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) is an advisory group that aims to improve the healthcare experience in Kawartha Lakes and assists in shaping KL-OHT programs. PFAC members represent the voice of our patients, clients, families and caregivers and their experience, insights, expertise, and perspectives are invaluable to improving care in our community.

Hear from PFAC members Caroline Fenelius-Carpenter and Susan Ferguson about why they joined the KL-OHT PFAC!

Interested in joining us as a PFAC member? Patients, clients, caregivers and family members who have experience using our healthcare system are always invited to apply. Your feedback will help shape the future of our local healthcare and services. The total time commitment ranges from 1-2 hours per month.

Learn more and apply on our website here. 

For people aged 50-74 without a family doctor, getting a colon cancer screening test is easy and can be done from the comfort of your own home. You can order the safe and painless colon cancer FIT (fecal immunochemical test) kit by calling Health Connect Ontario at 811.

The FIT kit is mailed to your home or address of your request and only takes a couple minutes to complete using a stool (poop) sample. You can easily return your completed FIT kit using a pre-paid mailing envelope, or you can drop it off at your nearest LifeLabs location. If you have an abnormal test result, you will be contacted to arrange a colonoscopy.

To be checked for colon cancer, speak to your primary care provider or call Health Connect Ontario at 811 to order your FIT kit. 

Our Member Spotlight series introduces the member organizations that have partnered with the Kawartha Lakes Ontario Health team to improve the local healthcare system for our community. 

This month we hear from City of Kawartha Lakes about how their priorities align with the KL-OHT vision of providing a seamless health system for the people we serve.

The program is based out of the former Oakwood Fire Station and services all of Kawartha Lakes. Sara Johnston, Paramedics Chief, commented, “This program is unique because it allows us to wrap services around the patient. As of November 2022, we’re currently serving an average of 225 patients a week, from Coboconk to Omemee and all points throughout the municipality. We work closely with partners in primary care, home care and Community Care to provide a safety net for patients.”

Marie McAuley, a patient of the Community Paramedic program, shares her story of being cared for by Community Paramedic Julie Milne:

“I’m 90 years old, am legally blind and live alone. When Julie started checking on me, she discovered that I have a heart condition. She saved my life. I haven’t had a hospital visit in two years. Julie helped me to learn how to monitor myself and the report goes in automatically. If there’s anything irregular, she gets an alert and will call me to see how I’m feeling. When she comes each week, it’s a real bright spot. It saves me going to the doctor, it saves a hospital visit and it makes me feel safe.” Check out the video below to hear more from Marie.

In addition to the Community Paramedicine program, the municipality of Kawartha Lakes continues to support recruitment and retention programs for family doctors as a partner of the Kawartha Lakes Health Care Initiative (KLHCI). Since the pandemic began, KLHCI has recruited three family doctors and are working with a number of potential recruits. They are supporting physicians to receive ‘hands on’ orthopedic training at the Ross Memorial Hospital, a valued training session that benefits doctors and patients. Learn more at www.kawarthalakesdoctors.org

Two new doctors at Community Health Centre

Lindsay's Ross Memorial Hospital opens respiratory illness care clinic

City of Kawartha Lakes Family Health Team Online Appointment Booking

Kawartha North Family Health Team Online Appointment Booking

Community Care City of Kawartha Lakes Community Health Centre Online Appointment Booking

A significant amount of the work we have been doing at the Kawartha Lakes OHT over the past year has involved planning for digital health maturity. Put simply, this involves finding ways that we can improve patient and caregiver access to their care records, and increasing the ease of sharing information across health service providers.

Ultimately, this will reduce the ‘repetition’ of the patient story at each point of care, ensure continuity of care from one health care provider to the next, and enhance patient safety in the process. For example, a patient receives care in an Emergency Department, diagnostics, or a chronic disease management clinic, and immediately their nurse practitioner or physician has access to the information from that visit. No faxes, no precious time spent trying to ‘chase’ records and reports, no need to navigate in and out of multiple record systems, etc. 

To this end, the KL-OHT, in partnership with Durham OHT, is exploring the feasibility of extending the hospital record system to primary care teams in the community. This system – called Epic – is a shared system across seven hospital organizations in our broader region. There is a lot of work involved in understanding what would be entailed and our project team is hard at work to explore this potential solution for “One patient- one record”.

From all of us at the Kawartha Lakes Ontario Health Team, we wish you a truly wonderful holiday season filled with health and happiness!