Health Care Providers Overview
Health care providers play a vital role in the success of newborn screening in Ontario.
This section of our website is designed to provide information and resources to the two main groups of health care providers that work with Newborn Screening Ontario (NSO) to ensure that all babies are offered timely screening and follow-up.
These health care providers typically work at:
1) Submitting Institutions & Practices
We call the hospitals, midwifery practices, birthing centres and clinics we receive samples from newborn screening "submitters."
Health care providers who work at these places have the following responsibilities in newborn screening:
- Parent education
- Specimen collection, shipping and tracking
- Prompt follow-up in the event a sample is unsatisfactory or a screen is missed
2) Regional Treatment Centres
We refer babies who screen positive for any of the diseases tested to specialized follow-up centres in the province called "Regional Treatment Centres".
Health care providers at these centres are responsible for:
- Confirmatory testing of babies who screen positive
- Treatment and management of true positive cases
- Providing us with follow-up outcome information
- Education of local healthcare providers
To understand the relationship between these health care providers in the overall system of screening in Ontario, please visit our Screening System page.
If you are a health care provider and have difficulty finding the information you are looking for, please don't hesitate to contact us.
