News

Kids Come First helps vulnerable families during COVID-19 where they need it most – at home

Ottawa, May 5, 2020 — Six partners of the Kids Come First Health Team are taking quick action to keep kids safe and provide home care to families who need it most. These are temporary but necessary emergency measures required in response to COVID-19.

CHEO and Roger Neilson House are trialing home-based respite services for the first time, including palliative care nursing services and care assessments, as well as in-home companionship to families with children who have medically complex needs. Some...

CHEO handwashing song is taking off, here and around the world — putting safety first

May 5, 2020 — Today, on World Hand Hygiene Day, a handwashing song created by Dr. Nisha Thampi, an infectious disease physician at CHEO, is featured in a cartoon series for kids called Spike and Toody and has now been translated into 27 different languages, reaching half of the world’s population in their native language.

“I never expected this response when I first wrote this song last year,” said Dr. Nisha Thampi, a pediatric infectious diseases physician and the medical director of...

CHEO becomes Canada’s first pediatric hospital offering a virtual Emergency Department

Monday May 4, 2020 - Starting today, CHEO’s Emergency Department is offering virtual appointments with a pediatric emergency physician for children and youth needing urgent, but not medically life-threatening, care — becoming Canada’s first pediatric hospital to do so.

CHEO’s Emergency Department is always open for in-person visits and we encourage anyone who needs in-person care to come. We are here and we are safe.

“Being the first pediatric hospital in Canada to offer virtual Emergency...

Kids Come First starts immunization clinic for children

Ottawa, April 28, 2020 — Kids Come First Health Team has opened a Children’s Immunization Clinic for infants and children under two (2) years of age in the Ottawa region who are unable to get their routine first series of immunizations due to COVID-19 closures.

CHEO, community pediatricians, Ottawa Public Health (OPH) and CANImmunize, all partners in the Kids Come First Health Team, saw the need to provide another option and reduce barriers they might be facing in safely getting their children’s...

Kids Come First Health Team sets up Ottawa’s first COVID-19 isolation centre for youth

Ottawa, April 21, 2020: Kids Come First Health Team has opened Ottawa’s first COVID-19 isolation centre for youth. The Youth Services Bureau (YSB) and CHEO, both partners in Kids Come First, have created a safe place for youth to be cared for by youth workers and medical professionals. Vulnerable individuals, aged 16-21, including those who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and those who do not have the space to self-isolate, will be able to recover or await test results at this site....