National RECOVER Program: ICU Care Continuum for Patients and Families after Critical Illness
The RECOVER Program is ongoing and was established in 2006 and supported by CIHR and private donors. It is an innovative collaboration among UHN, the Toronto Grace Health Centre (TGHC) and the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (TRI). It is designed to address health care gaps and challenges related to post-ICU care transitions beginning from one week of mechanical ventilation in the ICU through community reintegration at one year. It includes:
- Early transition to rehabilitation
- Ambulatory clinic for follow-up care to one-year after ICU discharge
- RECOVER navigator for ongoing care continuity
- RECOVER Knowledge transfer for patient and family education
Patients and family caregivers are followed up at the multidisciplinary and family-centred RECOVER clinic at UHN where they receive ongoing assessment, treatment and support after critical illness. At the clinic, patients undergo physical examination, breathing, walking and muscle strength testing, blood work and clinical consultation with ICU physicians and nurses. Patients and family caregivers are evaluated and research data is collected at each follow-up visit. The RECOVER team identifies functional, cognitive and mental health needs and provides care and facilitates referrals as required.
The Program aims to improve patient and family outcomes through optimized care transitions, appropriate patient disposition, improved long-term functional independence, mental health, quality of life and reduced health care utilization post-ICU discharge.
National CANCOV ICU Follow-up Program
The RECOVER Program has served as the platform for the development of the CANCOV ICU program which is also a clinical and research group focused on optimizing multidimensional outcomes for those Canadians who became critically ill after COVID-19 and who were also in the ICU on the mechanical ventilation. Follow-up care is ongoing and offered in the context of this research program extending to five years after ICU discharge.
Patients and families may initiate the referral to the RECOVER program for post-ICU care after critical illness/critical illness related to COVID-19.
Learn more about the Inpatient Rehab Streams:
RECOVER Program for Chronic Critical Illness in Collaboration with Toronto Grace Health Centre (TGHC)
This inpatient program began in April 2020 at the TGHC and represents an upstream extension of the RECOVER Program and the critical illness care continuum. It is an innovative program created in collaboration with the Toronto Grace Health Centre (TGHC), Salvation Army, Ministry of Health in Ontario, University Health Network and Critical Care Services Ontario. It arose from the urgent need to create capacity for acute ICU beds in the Greater Toronto area during COVID and now occupies a unique niche of providing care for those patients able to transition to the community having been liberated from mechanical ventilation or requiring ongoing home ventilation.
The RECOVER Program for Chronic Critical Illness offers a 34-bed unit and a comprehensive multidisciplinary/interprofessional team to meet the needs of chronically critically ill patients and their families who would benefit from an alternate disposition focused on rehabilitation and mental health as they recover and wean from protracted critical illness. It is the only program in Canada designed to mitigate care transitions, optimize the education of patients and families about outcomes and disability after critical illness, optimize transition to the community and foster ongoing follow-up care.
Learn more about Toronto Grace Health Centre RECOVER Program:
Life After Critical Care | Margaret Herridge, MD, MPH, University of Toronto
