{"id":895695,"date":"2026-09-14T18:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/895695\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T18:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:10:17","slug":"leading-mental-health-hospital-cuts-wait-times-by-condensing-programs-hiring-and-tracking-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/895695\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading mental health hospital cuts wait times by condensing programs, hiring and tracking data"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Royal\u2019s new approach to improving patients\u2019 access to care could serve as a roadmap for other institutions looking to reduce wait times while also facing financial constraints.Ashley Fraser\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

When senior staff at one of the country\u2019s leading mental health hospitals looked at the lengthy wait times for the facility\u2019s outpatient care, they decided to take an unusual step to address the issue: reducing the number of programs the hospital offers. <\/p>\n

The Royal, located in Ottawa, used to run 17 different mental health programs, such as for anxiety disorders and mood disorders. <\/p>\n

But members of the hospital\u2019s senior leadership team say this led to siloed services that had different admission criteria, contributing to a backlog of patients who waited around two years to receive care. <\/p>\n

Some patients qualified for more than one program, for instance if they were struggling with both anxiety and substance use, further complicating how patients received care.<\/p>\n

Then, in January, the mental health hospital moved to deliver just three.<\/p>\n

Emergency room wait times continue to climb in Canada as more medically complex patients seek care<\/a><\/p>\n

The programs now include a general psychiatry stream for patients who live with a range of mental health concerns, including mood, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, trauma and personality disorders.<\/p>\n

There is also a program to support patients with severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia.<\/p>\n

Lastly, the integrated forensic program<\/a> provides specialized treatment for patients who have come into contact with the criminal justice system or who are at risk of doing so.<\/p>\n

The changes have already proven to be effective, along with other measures including hiring a dozen more psychiatrists and centralized data tracking on patient demand to better inform service delivery.<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of the year, the Royal increased the number of outpatients seen from 407 in January to 800 in June. The number of patients waiting for care has also declined by 62 per cent from 1,498 to 574. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are providing more access to patients,\u201d said Maiko Schneider, the hospital\u2019s senior medical officer and deputy chief of staff.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Ending the marathon of suffering in Canada\u2019s emergency rooms<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Schneider said the hospital can now see outpatients within about three to four months. Previously, the wait list was so long that many of the city\u2019s care providers stopped referring patients to the hospital all together. <\/p>\n

In the hospital\u2019s annual report<\/a> for 2024-25, it described how \u201clong wait times, fragmented services, and the continued shortage of primary care providers have created a system under pressure.\u201c <\/p>\n

Too often, it added, people turn to emergency departments because they have nowhere else to go.<\/p>\n

Dr. Schneider said patients who do not receive timely care become more difficult to treat, and often have more dysfunctional lives and struggle in the community.<\/p>\n

The Royal\u2019s new approach to improving patients\u2019 access to care could serve as a roadmap for other institutions looking to reduce wait times while also facing financial constraints.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Cara Vaccarino, president and CEO of The Royal in Ottawa, said the hospital has drawn lessons from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.Ashley Fraser\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Cara Vaccarino, the Royal\u2019s president and chief executive officer, said most hospitals are facing significant structural deficits. The Royal reported<\/a> a $6.5-million deficit last March. <\/p>\n

She said that while it can be a daunting proposition for hospital leaders to be ambitious and bold in this climate, that cannot \u201cdeter us from innovating, from advancing.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sept. 21, the Royal is scheduled to open an urgent-care clinic where patients who are in distress can be seen by psychiatrists. <\/p>\n

The hospital\u2019s former urgent-care clinic shuttered in 2000 amid efforts in Ontario to streamline health care services. <\/p>\n

At the clinic, patients would be admitted to hospital if needed or could have up to six outpatient appointments, said Stephanie Carter, executive director at the hospital.<\/p>\n

The goal is to eventually scale up clinic services to include evening and weekend coverage. <\/p>\n

Ms. Vaccarino said the Royal has drawn lessons from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, such as tracking patient intake to inform program delivery. <\/p>\n

Ontario ER doctors raise alarm on hospital overcrowding<\/a><\/p>\n

CAMH is Canada\u2019s largest mental health teaching hospital<\/a> and also operates an urgent care clinic.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us, including myself, worked at CAMH for a long time,\u201d she said. \u201cCAMH actually undertook a lot of the changes we\u2019re doing now quite some time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Royal, Ms. Vaccarino said her team\u2019s approach is to be \u201crelentlessly focused and dogged.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not rocket scientists,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re just doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She speaks from personal experience. When she was just 10-years-old, her mother, Joan, died by suicide. <\/p>\n

Ms. Vaccarino shared how her mother encountered stigma and isolation while she was navigating what is now known as treatment-resistant depression.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat kind of loss changes you forever,\u201d Ms. Vaccarino wrote in an op-ed<\/a> last year, describing the experience as her \u201cguiding force.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI knew \u2013 even then \u2013 that I would spend my life working to ensure no other child had to lose a parent to an illness that could, and should, be treated with the same urgency and innovation as any physical health condition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The Royal\u2019s new approach to improving patients\u2019 access to care could serve as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,84,392,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-895695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}