Virtual Ward Enhances Health and Quality of Life: One Patient’s Story

The Hospital's Virtual Ward is five years old and Teresa Munn, one of its first patients, is a testament to its success!

The Virtual Ward was opened to improve care for medically complex patients with repeated hospital and Emergency admissions. It facilitates a safe discharge home and gives patients the follow-up support, reassurance and education they need to stay healthy and functional in the community.

A collaboration between the hospital, family doctors, the South East Toronto Family Health Team and the Toronto Central CCAC; the Virtual Ward brings Hospital and community providers together to ensure patients get the support they need after discharge. The hospital provides nurse case managers and an office with a dedicated phone line where providers from both hospital and community come together to collaborate around patients’ care needs.

Teresa describes her quality of life before she was enrolled in the Virtual Ward as “no good.” Suffering from acute breathing problems and cancer she says, “I saw so many doctors in Emergency, I couldn’t tell you. I’ve been in Emergency 1,001 times and admitted many times to different wards. I’d be home for two or three days and back in.”

This all stopped about five years ago when the nurses from the Virtual Ward came down to Emergency and, as she says, “asked me to join the club.”

She has never looked back. They got her started on home oxygen, helped her get a scooter and help her stay positive.

Virtual Ward nurses make regular check-in phone calls and Teresa says she wants them to call her forever. “One little phone call from any of them and I know somebody cares; that’s the main thing that has made a difference to me,” she says. “The calls boost my morale and I am able to get up, get dressed and go out.” She also knows that she can call them whenever she is worried “and they will always reassure me and give me good advice.”

Teresa continues to go out daily, weather permitting and has made new friends. She can’t remember the last time she was in Emergency! She also can’t image the Virtual Ward being any better than it is and says firmly:  “They will do wonders for you!”