Telehealth Ontario is a free, confidential, telephone-based health service that provides health advice and information from a Registered Nurse.
Universally accessible, Telehealth Ontario services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Telehealth Ontario services are offered in English and French with translation support for 110 languages and a direct TTY number for people with a hearing impairment or speech difficulty. The service can help callers decide whether to care for themselves, make an appointment with their doctor, go to a clinic, contact a community service or go to a hospital emergency department.
Ontarians continue to enjoy faster access to health advice
Telehealth Ontario, which began operating in February 2001, receives about 3,100 calls daily.
A recent report shows the following :
- about 43 per cent of callers received self-care advice; 35 per cent of callers were advised to visit their physician; 14 per cent were referred to a hospital emergency department; two per cent were considered urgent calls and were connected to 911; two per cent had complex medication questions and were referred to a pharmacist through the Ontario Pharmacists Association's medication information line;
- the top five reasons for seeking symptom-related advice were nausea/vomiting, abdominal pain, fever in children between three months and three years, cough and cold, and rash;
- over 40 per cent of callers are parents, mainly mothers, calling about their children's symptoms;
- most of the calls seeking health information were about topics such as childhood communicable diseases, vaccinations and fever;
- Other than English, the most requested languages are French, Cantonese and Mandarin.
What happens when individuals call Telehealth?
When individuals have a general health question -- day or night, seven days a week -- they can call Telehealth Ontario at 1-866-797-0000 (TTY: 1-866-797-0007) and speak directly with a Registered Nurse.
A call to Telehealth Ontario provides confidential advice about any health-related concern such as :
- symptoms that could require medical attention,
- illness or injury,
- chronic illnesses,
- nutrition and healthy lifestyles,
- teen health and lifestyle issues.
For a medical concern, callers will be asked to describe their symptoms and answer questions to best assess the seriousness of the problem. Using standardized, physician authored, decision-making software, nurses chart caller responses.
Based on the assessment, the nurse will :
- advise self-care at home,
- recommend a visit to a physician for diagnosis and treatment,
- recommend immediate connection with a hospital emergency department.
Nurses can also :
- Provide information and phone numbers of local health and social services using the
Community Resource Database.
- Connect callers with complex medication questions to a pharmacist through the Ontario
Pharmacists' Association's (OPA) medication information line. The OPA provides medication information services to Telehealth Ontario from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. About two per cent of all callers are referred to the line.
Telehealth Ontario services can be reached at 1-866-797-0000 (TTY: 1-866-797-0007).
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Call the ministry INFOline at 1-866-532-3161
(Toll-free in Ontario only)
TTY 1-800-387-5559
Hours of operation : 8:30am - 5:00pm |
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