Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario

CHEO (Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario) is a specialized, tertiary pediatric hospital located in Ottawa, Ontario. It delivers acute care, trauma services, and specialist programs for children and youth. The facility includes a hospital, children’s treatment centre, research institute, school, and satellite services. It is affiliated with the University of Ottawa as an academic health science centre.

Services & Capacity

CHEO provides a broad spectrum of pediatric care: emergency medicine, mental health services, development and rehabilitation, surgical care, diagnostic specialties, and community-based support. It serves a large catchment area: Eastern Ontario, parts of Northern Ontario, Western Quebec, and Nunavut.

From its data for the period April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025: around 709,438 total visits; emergency department visits ~71,273; inpatient admissions ~7,448; outpatient visits ~630,717; community program visits ~79,190. Budgeted beds are about 142.

CHEO has expanded its critical care capacity: level 2 critical care beds were increased from 6 to 12; level 3 critical care (highest acuity: severe illnesses, advanced ventilation, trauma, etc.) increased from 7 to 13. This responds to rising demand in the pediatric population.

Patient Portal & Health Records

CHEO uses MyChart, integrated with the Epic electronic health record system. Through MyChart families and patients (where appropriate) can view many parts of their medical record: test results, imaging, pathology, upcoming and past appointments, some visit summaries, upload photos for identification, complete pre-visit questionnaires, and communicate securely with care teams.

Health Records also supports “Care Everywhere” network via Epic, allowing secure sharing with partner hospitals. For imaging records, CHEO has a partnership with PocketHealth for viewing/sharing certain medical imaging. Non-MyChart info can also be requested by release forms.

Strengths & Challenges

Strengths: CHEO is strong in pediatric specialties, teaching, research; provides comprehensive services including for remote/northern regions; recent investments increase critical care capacity; uses modern digital tools like patient portals and imaging sharing.

Challenges: high demand leading to capacity strain, especially in emergency and mental health; wait times and throughput are pressured; some results (e.g. sensitive genetic or certain specialty procedure results) are not immediately released via MyChart; some families might find navigating the system complex (pre-visit prep, access, proxy roles). These are not unique to CHEO but relevant when using hospital’s services.

Practical Information & Ongoing Developments

Location: 401 Smyth Road, Ottawa ON. Phone main switchboard ~613-737-7600. CHEO is undertaking a Transformation plan for its Smyth campus, including an Integrated Treatment Centre project (formerly 1door4care) to co-locate various community and specialty services, including mental health, rehab, autism, behavioural support, etc.

For families: maps, parking, preparing for stays/visits, visiting policies, amenity info are available. CHEO offers virtual care for certain services, community supports, and family-centred rounds. Efforts underway to address increasing mental health demand among youth (including emergency assessment facilities, coordination services).