Overview
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton is the regional referral centre for respiratory medicine and thoracic surgery in south central Ontario. The Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health (FIRH), often referred to as the chest program, provides both inpatient and ambulatory care and centralized pulmonary diagnostic testing for the hospital. FIRH is an internationally recognized leader in academic and research programs within St. Joseph's Healthcare and McMaster University. Learners from medicine, nursing, physiotherapy and respiratory therapy come to the Firestone Institute for placements from McMaster University, Mohawk College and the Michener Institute.
Inpatient features:
- A 25-bed inpatient unit including six surgical step down beds that provide cardiac and hemodynamic monitoring for intermediate critical care patients
- A graduated orientation program that allows for progressive learning of each specialty including step down skills and transition of ventilated patients from ICU
- Patient conditions that include: lung volume reduction surgery, pneumonectomies, tuberculosis, asthma, COPD, ALS, esophageal disorders, tracheostomies, and bronchiectasis
Ambulatory features:
- Weekly clinics for asthma, COPD, tuberculosis, pulmonary failure, post-operative follow-up, emphysema and allergy testing. Approximately 38,000 clinic visits are completed at the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health each year.
- Specialty clinics include adverse reaction to insects, penicillin and other drugs, and smoking cessation
- An Outpatient Sleep Assessment Program open six nights a week, for diagnostic investigation of sleep disorders.
- Pulmonary diagnostic testing performed by respiratory therapists and pulmonary technologists
- Nurse clinic visits for follow up and patient education
