Royal Victoria Hospital accelerates cardiac care with Hypercare

Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) in Barrie, Ontario, is no stranger to the pressures facing acute care hospitals. It serves one of the fastest-growing regions in the province, providing a vast array of subspecialty care. RVH has seen rising demand for emergency cardiac care as the population ages. For patients experiencing ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI), every minute between arrival at the emergency department and treatment in the catheterization lab, known as the “door-to-balloon” time, has a direct impact on survival and recovery.

RVH’s system for activating the cardiac response team relied on outdated tools. Pagers and call lists meant that a single STEMI team activation could involve multiple phone calls, voicemail delays, and misdirected pages if schedules weren’t up to date. The hospital knew that a faster, more reliable solution was needed.

RVH turned to Hypercare – a secure clinical communication and coordination platform – for a better and more efficient approach. The goal was to streamline the STEMI team activation process and give clinicians the tools to coordinate seamlessly when every second matters. Instead of relying on manual call-outs, a single activation now notifies the entire on-call response team simultaneously through secure messaging, overriding silent or “Do Not Disturb” settings.

If the first message is not acknowledged, the system can automatically escalate to a phone call or SMS message until confirmation is received, ensuring no team members are missed.

Equally important, Hypercare directly maintains RVH’s on-call schedules. Clinicians no longer worry about calling the wrong person or tracking down who is covering a shift. The system draws on live, centrally managed schedules so that only the correct on-call staff are alerted. This automation not only reduces administrative burden but also removes one of the most common points of error in manual processes.

The platform has also improved collaboration with paramedics and referral hospitals. When first responders capture an ECG in the field on Zoll ECG monitors, it can be sent directly to the interventional cardiologist on call, enabling rapid diagnosis and allowing teams to prepare before the patient arrives.

Referral hospitals and paramedic services, meanwhile, can bypass traditional switchboard delays and connect immediately with specialists at RVH through a dedicated phone number. This dedicated number connects directly to switchboard, where clerks immediately transfer the call to Interventional Cardiology, preventing callers from being stuck in the regular caller queue.

“Activating a STEMI is now seamless,” said Dr. Mark Kotowycz, interventional cardiologist and medical director at RVH. “We no longer wait for pages to be returned, the entire team is alerted instantly. The faster we mobilize, the sooner we can open the artery, directly improving patient outcomes.”

The results have been striking. RVH has reduced activation delays and improved decision making by ensuring that the right clinicians have the right information at the right time. Staff have reported less frustration and wasted effort, as they no longer need to spend critical minutes chasing down colleagues by phone. And most importantly, patients are getting faster access to life-saving treatment.

RVH’s experience also reflects a broader shift underway across Canadian healthcare. Hospitals are increasingly recognizing that traditional paging systems and phone trees are not designed for the speed and complexity of modern acute care. Secure, digital platforms are helping providers close the communication gaps that once delayed patient care. For critical conditions like STEMI and stroke, where delays can cost lives, these tools are indispensable.

For RVH, the move to Hypercare has been more than a technological upgrade, it has been a cultural shift toward faster, safer, and more reliable collaboration. What began with STEMI activations has since expanded to include Code Blue, Code Pink, Code OB, Code Stroke, and specialized Code Transfusion alerts, including Pediatrics.

RVH has also built a unique Life & Limb/Vascular activation, designed to mobilize vascular surgeons and surgical/recovery nurses immediately in emergency situations. Previously, this process required multiple phone calls and often led to delays in reaching the care team. With Hypercare, the Life & Limb pathway now notifies the vascular team instantly, saving precious time and ensuring patients receive rapid, life- and limb-saving interventions.

As hospitals across Canada look for ways to modernize emergency workflows, RVH’s journey offers a glimpse of how digital coordination not only accelerates cardiac care but also transforms a broad spectrum of emergency response codes, helping clinicians deliver better outcomes when every second counts.