Jacqueline Howarth, Registration Clerk, hands out a pager to a patient in the Cancer Centre.
Jacqueline Howarth, Registration Clerk, hands out a pager to a patient in the Cancer Centre.
Credit
Matthew Manor/KGH

What is in a name? For many cancer patients hearing your name called out takes on a new meaning when sitting in a busy waiting room. When the nurse calls you in for your appointment you quickly lose your anonymity in front the other patients, caregivers, and volunteers.

This week the Cancer Centre of South Eastern Ontario at KGH will roll out their new Patient Pager System. Instead of being called by name, patients will be given a pager similar to the ones used at restaurants when they arrive for their clinic appointment. 

“Clinic patients will know it is their turn to come to the check-in area, not by hearing their name called but through the silent pager that flashes red lights and vibrates,” says Dan Hogan, Ambulatory Oncology Clinic Coordinator.

KGH is one of the first hospitals in Ontario to introduce these pagers into a health care setting. This innovation was made possible through a charitable gift from a former patient, turned donor who recognized the need for a better system to protect patient privacy. 

“We find that once a health crisis is over, some patients or their families seek a way to stay involved with the hospital, or a way to find closure. Often, they do that through a meaningful donation such as this,” says Denise Cumming, UHKF President. “Philanthropy can be an important part of the healing process.”

The donation paved the way and a working group, that included Patient Experience Advisors, came together to find the right pager system solution.

"We ran a three month trial with chemotherapy patients who felt pagers would be most useful in the main clinic areas where wait times are longer and the wait areas are less private," said Hogan.  

 Along with increased privacy, patients will gain more freedom as the pagers work anywhere within the Burr wing and can reach all the way to the Tuck Shop on Connell 1. Patients can even sit on the benches just outside or take a restroom break without fear of missing their appointment.

There are plenty of pagers available as well, as 99 of them have been purchased to be used in the Cancer Centre going forward.