The Nurse Practitioners who make up the Central East's NPSTAT team provide direct clinical care to the residents of Ontario Health East's long-term care homes (LTCH) by responding to acute and episodic changes in the residents’ condition to reduce unscheduled transfers to a hospital. In addition, NPSTAT Nurse Practitioners work with LTCH caregivers to support the sharing of geriatric expertise and to increase caregiver ability to support the increasingly complex clinical needs of LTCH residents.

 

Responding to the health risks that come with transferring frail seniors to hospital Emergency Departments, NPSTAT Nurse Practitioners are on-call to LTCH across the LHIN.  Hospital or acute care settings have a focus on stabilizing and discharging the patient, a strategy that is not always consistent with the needs of long-term care residents.

 

NPSTAT works with homes and hospitals to enhance the emergency experience for frail seniors or to avoid a visit to the emergency department entirely where possible. Reducing avoidable hospital visits and admissions improves the health profile and health care experience of long-term care home residents, while maintaining or reducing the cost of providing appropriate care for those residents.

 

When LTCH residents are hospitalized, NPSTAT helps coordinate transitions back to the LTCHs which can decrease hospital length of stay, enhance continuity of care and communication between acute and long-term care facilities, and provide support and resources to LTCH staff to help manage returning LTCH residents with increasingly complex medical needs.

 

NPSTAT focuses on being both an outstanding care partner and system partner in supporting key LHIN program deliverables, while delivering the right care in the right place at the right time.

 

NPSTAT Team Locations

The NPSTAT team provides service to 61 of the 68 long-term care homes. Teams are active across the LHIN triaging and responding to homes in the Scarborough, Durham, and Northeast clusters.