A new service at the Montreal Children’s Hospital is changing what happens after a child goes home by giving families direct access to medical support without stepping into the ER. It’s a program that parents like Alexandra MacDonald say creates a human lifeline during emotionally intense times. Just hours after her seven-year-old son’s surgery, she brought him home and tucked him into bed. Logan Vaillancourt needed his rest after a long day and was in pain. “It hurted a lot,” he told CTV News. MacDonald said when her husband went to pick up their son’s prescription, the label on the bottle “didn’t match what we had gotten.” Though it sounds like a minor issue, it isn’t for a mother with a child fresh out of surgery. “On the logical level, I knew it would be fine. It was a super simple surgery- one incision,” she said. “But on the emotional level, you know, it’s my baby having surgery- I was stressed.” But then, she remembered the phone number she was given before leaving the hospital. Within two minutes of her calling, a nurse answered with Logan’s file open. “I felt bad, like I was wasting their time with how fast it went. But they made me feel at ease and it was so nice to have this when I was already stressed out with everything else,” MacDonald recalled. The Reconnect line launched last May and it gives parents and guardians 24/7 access to a nurse for the 15 days following discharge. Seven nurses were hired to run the program. Catherine Bouchard, a manager at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, co-leads the program and says some calls aren’t always simple and may need more attention. “It happens sometimes where the parents are calling just for a question and ‘wait I can hear your son breathing or your daughter breathing in the back, I feel the breathing is a bit fast, hard, etc. And then ask more questions and say, ‘you know what, you need to come in,” she explained. She says the program is all about catching problems early and reducing pressure in waiting rooms. “I really feel we’re making a difference, and we’re also diminishing the return visits to the emergency department,” she said. So far, she says it’s prevented at least 175 er visits. Nurses have logged more than 3,000 incoming calls and follow-ups combined. For MacDonald, the next-day check-in made all the difference. “And it kind of creates that human link also- you’re not just forgotten about once you have the surgery,” she said. The hospital plans to expand the service to other sites, including the Royal Victoria and the MUHC’s birthing centre.
