Data Collection and Usage

Critical Care Information System 

The Critical Care Information System (CCIS) is a near real-time source of province-wide information on capacity and utilization of Ontario’s critical care units supporting adult, paediatric, and neonatal patients. CCIS captures information on the bed capacity of the critical care system and the characteristics of its patients. and is a prescribed registry under PHIPA, hosted by CritiCall Ontario. Critical Care Services Ontario (CCSO) is responsible for strategic oversight of the CCIS. This includes responsibility for regular review of data elements, changes to data capture, data review and analysis, and data reporting for CCSO stakeholders including hospitals and regional / provincial planners and decision makers at Ontario Health and the Ministry of Health.  

CCIS was developed in consultation with stakeholders across Ontario and was implemented in all adult and paediatric critical care units in 2009, followed by neonatal units in 2018. As of 2023, approximately 250 adult, paediatric, and neonatal critical care units enter data into CCIS.

The CCIS includes the following components:

• Bed-availability Tool (BAT) provides near-real time information on the status of all critical care beds in the CCIS inventory. Around the clock access to this information allows decision makers to better manage patient flow across the system, avoid surge pressures, and minimize wait times. 
• Reports portal provides predefined reports for authorized CCIS end-users to track data and identify areas for quality improvement. The reports focus on key indicators related to access, quality and critical care system performance (e.g. critical care bed occupancy, patient acuity, readmission rates, patient discharge delays and ICU patient mortality). 

CCIS data may be requested for research or non-research purposes as permitted under PHIPA. The request can be made by completing the appropriate data request forms for Research or non-Research.