Child Health Network for the GTA
Who we are
Building on a concept first envisioned more than 20 years ago, the Child Health Network for the Greater Toronto Area (CHN) was officially established in 1999 as a partnership of hospital and community providers committed to establishing a regional system of care for mothers, newborns, children and youth.
Current membership of the Network includes eighteen (18) acute care hospitals, one (1) children’s tertiary level rehabilitation and complex continuing care centre, and nine (9) Community Care Access Centres (CCACs).The CHN operates in Canada’s largest and most diverse metropolitan area. More than 67,000 babies are born each year in the region, representing approximately 51% of the province’s total births (based on the 2004/05 Statistics Canada estimate of 131,454 births in Ontario.
Current Membership
Bloorview MacMillan Children’s Centre ~ Community Care Access Centre of Halton ~ Community Care Access Centre of Peel ~ Community Care Access Centre of York Region ~ Durham Access to Care ~ East York Access Centre ~ Etobicoke and York Community Care Access Centre ~ Halton Healthcare Services ~ Humber River Regional Hospital ~ Lakeridge Health Corporation ~ Markham Stouffville Hospital ~ Mount Sinai Hospital ~ North York Community Care Access Centre ~ North York General Hospital ~ Rouge Valley Health System ~ St. Joseph’s Health Centre ~ St. Michael’s Hospital ~ Scarborough Community Care Access Centre ~ Southlake Regional Health Centre ~ Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre ~ The Credit Valley Hospital ~ The Hospital for Sick Children ~ The Scarborough Hospital ~ Toronto Community Care Access Centre ~ Toronto East General Hospital ~ Trillium Health Centre ~ William Osler Health Centre ~ York Central Hospital
What we do
The mandate of the Child Health Network for the Greater Toronto Area Network is to facilitate and support the development of a regional maternal/newborn and children’s health services system. The members of the Network work collaboratively to share knowledge and coordinate services throughout the region with a focus on reducing variation in maternal/newborn and child health services and strengthening the continuity and consistency of care across the region.
How we do it
Collectively, Network members have the critical mass required to bring about significant change that would be difficult for any single organization to achieve. It does this by pooling member resources, expertise, and ideas to generate ‘new’ solutions to current challenges, and lobbying government to make the changes necessary to improve service delivery, service outcomes, research and education.
Focus on Family-Centered Care (FCC)
In 2003, the CHN released a document titled, “Integrating Family-Centered Care into Health Care Practice: Toward a Common Framework of Understanding.” The framework promotes adoption of a common definition and includes 17 standards of FCC that are being used as the basis for encouraging a consistent approach to FCC across the network.
What is SickKids’ involvement
SickKids is one of the members of the CHN. It provides tertiary (level III) neonatal and acute paediatric services including inpatient tertiary level medical and/surgical services throughout the GTA and some primary/secondary services to the local community.
Contact Information
Alison Quigley
Executive Director, Child Health Network
Phone: 416-813-8304
e-mail: alison.quigley@sickkids.ca