Glossary

Acute Teaching Hospital

Acute teaching hospitals include acute and paediatric hospitals that provide complex patient care, are affiliated with a medical or health sciences school, and have significant research activity and postgraduate training.

Bacteraemia

Bacteraemia is the presence of bacteria in the bloodstream and is referred to as a bloodstream infection.

Complex Continuing Care Hospital

Complex continuing care hospitals have their own building, chief executive officer (CEO), and board. They report data to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care separately from other hospitals or facilities and usually do not have acute care patients.

Hospital Patient Days

Patient days are the number of days spent in a hospital for all patients. For example, if there are 100 patients in a hospital for 10 days, that totals 1000 patient days (100 x 10).

Large Community Hospital

Large community hospitals are hospitals that are not defined as small or teaching.

LHIN

Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) are not-for-profit corporations that work with local health providers and community members to determine the health service priorities of their regions. LHINs do not provide services directly; instead they are responsible for integrating services in each of their specific geographic areas. LHINs work with local health providers and community members to develop integrated health service plans for their local area.

Mental Health Hospital

Mental health hospitals serve individuals with more complex treatment and behavioural management needs. Their patients typically require a longer length of stay.

PHU

Public Health Unit.

Rehabilitation Hospital

Rehabilitation hospitals provide rehabilitation for clients with a primary health condition that is physical in nature (e.g. stroke, orthopedic conditions, brain dysfunction, spinal cord dysfunction or amputation) in publicly-funded, designated adult rehabilitation beds.

RICN

Regional Infection Control Networks (RICNs) are designed to coordinate infection prevention and control activities and promote standardization in healthcare facilities across Ontario. Development of the networks has brought together infection prevention and control and infectious diseases expertise from relevant fields across the health care continuum including acute care, public health, community care and long-term care homes. There are 14 RICNs in Ontario.

Small Community Hospital

Small community hospitals generally provide services to a single community and have a lower number of cases than a large hospital.

Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus

VRE is spread from one person to another by contact, usually on the hands of caregivers. VRE can be present on the caregiver's hands either from touching contaminated material excreted by an infected person or from touching articles soiled by faeces. VRE can survive well on hands and can survive for weeks on inanimate objects such as toilet seats, taps, door handles, bedrails, furniture and bedpans. VRE is easy to kill with the proper use of disinfectants and good hand hygiene.