Getting Patients Home: How Seafair Is Tackling Hospital Gridlock

When a patient is medically ready to leave the hospital, the discharge is far from finished. Someone may need to arrange oxygen, coordinate equipment delivery, confirm a fire safety inspection for home oxygen, or connect with family members and community services. Each unfinished task can keep a patient in a hospital bed longer than medically necessary.

With hospital beds at a premium across Canada, every unnecessary day a medically ready patient remains in acute care delays treatment for others waiting to be admitted.

DischargeHUB was created to coordinate those final steps, streamlining the discharge process and reducing unnecessary hospital stays. Developed in Newfoundland and Labrador, the service combines care coordination professionals with technology-enabled workflows to help patients move safely from hospital to home. After a successful pilot, implementation and CAN Health Project with Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services, in July 2026, DischargeHUB won the Hospital Capacity and Patient Flow category at HealthPRO Canada's inaugural Healthcare Innovation Den.

The service addresses a problem affecting hospitals across Canada. Alternate level of care (ALC) patients no longer require acute care, but remain in hospital while waiting for equipment, services, paperwork or another care setting. In its 2022 report, Health Accord NL estimated that these patients occupy 20 per cent of acute care beds in Newfoundland and Labrador. Nationally, this figure stands at 17 per cent, representing thousands of patients and hospital beds.

DischargeHUB centralizes the work required to complete the transition home. Its team coordinates with patients, families, clinicians and service providers, while the platform tracks every outstanding task to completion and flags transitions that stall. Patients also receive a follow-up call within 48 hours to confirm that equipment and services are in place. The service has been live in Newfoundland and Labrador since 2024, with direct integration into CorCare, the province's Epic electronic health record, added in April 2026.

The results have been measurable. According to the CAN health Network validation project,.patients supported by DischargeHUB leave hospital an average of 2.5 days sooner, while each discharge returns approximately five hours to clinical teams. The value delivered scales dramatically - for example at a volume of just 60 discharges per month, the impact translates to a projected 1,800 additional bed days and 3,600 clinical hours annually.

"Every bed-day returned means faster access for someone who needs acute care, while giving clinicians back valuable time," said Ayon Shahed, EVP & Chief Commercial Officer. "Through NL Health Services and CAN Health validation, we’ve seen hundreds of bed-days and clinical hours returned already. And this is just the beginning of what’s possible as we scale locally and set our sights across Canada."

The Healthcare Innovation Den brought Canadian health technology companies before procurement leaders and health system decision makers. DischargeHUB is now deployed provincially through Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services and is pursuing partnerships in other Canadian markets.

"This win is a direct reflection of the team's commitment to collaboration, care coordination and patient wellbeing," said Sheena Fiander, Managing Director of DischargeHUB. "The dedication they bring every day is why patients get home safely, and it's why we're being recognized at a national level."

For Seafair, DischargeHUB shows what can happen when a Canadian company works directly with a public health system to develop and test a solution around an identified need. For patients, the impact is much more personal. The final arrangements are made, the right supports are ready and waiting, and they can return home safely.

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This article is part of CCI’s “By Canadian Innovators” series, which showcases how members of the Council of Canadian Innovators work with homegrown companies to fuel their growth and make Canada more prosperous. Each story in this series highlights the unique contributions of these companies to building a more prosperous, innovation-driven economy. To learn more about the companies CCI works with to build a more prosperous Canada, visit our member directory.