The Brant Community Healthcare System (BCHS) has a 10 bed Level 2 Pediatrics unit, and a Level 2B Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) serving infants as young as 32 weeks. The BCHS is fortunate to have a group of 9 consultant pediatricians that provide 24/7 inpatient and outpatient care to children spanning infancy to 18 years.
The Pediatric Quick Care Program at BCHS provides early Emergency Department (ED) assessment of children that may need admission or specialized pediatric care. It is able to process pediatric patients swiftly, minimizing time spent in the in the ED. From there, if required, children can be admitted on an inpatient basis with access to subspecialty consultation as needed. After discharge, follow up is provided in the Pediatric Acute Referral Service (PARS) outpatient clinic.
The PARS clinic enables community physicians, midwives and nurse practitioners to refer children requiring specialized treatment to pediatricians at the BCHS. The PARS clinic sees children requiring more urgent pediatric consultation.
Pediatrics at the BCHS also has outpatient clinics 7 days a week to provide follow up for infants discharged from the ED or NICU, to provide care for children being referred from their family doctor, a Bilirubin (Bili) Clinic for jaundice treatment, and a Pediatric Diabetes Clinic.
“Our NICU… provides a caring environment for our most at risk newborns to grow and get better.”
The Pediatric Acute Referral Service was built on a commitment by BCHS Pediatricians to provide timely and high quality care to patients closer to their own home.”
“Our Pediatric Acute Referral Service and Bilirubin outpatient clinics saw nearly 3,000 pediatric patients in 2022. That’s a 400% increase from 2019, showing that there is a big need for these services in our community”.
Most pediatric referrals come from the Emergency Department (ED) at the Brantford General Hospital, which sees up to 8,000 children on an annual basis.
The PARS clinic enables community physicians to refer children requiring specialized treatment to pediatricians at the BCHS. Also within this space is the Bilirubin Clinic, which assesses and treats newborns that may have significantly elevated levels of bilirubin. This can lead to jaundice and cause lasting health problems.
The PARS & Bili clinics were first opened at the BGH in 2017 and saw 663 PARS and 29 Bilirubin Clinic visits, for a total of 692 clinic visits. In 2022, there were 1,875 PARS and 1,522 Bilirubin Clinic visits for a total of 3,397 visits – a growth rate of almost 400%, demonstrating the incredible need for the service in this area.
As of November 2023 Redevelopment of the PARS clinic has been completed! The PARS clinic redevelopment was supported by generous BCHS Foundation donors, who contributed $575,000 to this project.
The new redeveloped clinic includes:
- three new private exam rooms
- all new equipment calibrated for pediatric patients
- accessible washrooms
- a family friendly waiting area
The new clinic enables children and parents to receive care in a more comfortable, less stressful environment.
PARS clinic redevelopment is 100% funded by the BCHS Foundation through the generosity of donor dollars. We are sincerely grateful for contributions to support local healthcare and our youngest patients at the BCHS.