Archive for the ‘Health Delivery System’ Category

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Getting Connected: Digital Health and Information Sharing under Bill 74

Monday, May 6th, 2019

After the first year of implementation, Ontario Health Team Candidates are expected to meet the following criteria: have a harmonized information management plan in place; increase adoption of relevant digital health tools; and
have plans in place to streamline and integrate point of service systems and use data to support patient care and population health management…  The backbone of integration will be the ability to share information.

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Ontario’s health system needs change. But has Ford got it right?

Friday, April 26th, 2019

In the next layer, you will find 10 public-health organizations, down from 35, and 10 ambulance organizations, down from 59. One might have thought that these 10 new service areas might have been married up with 10 health regions, but alas, no… it’s still a simpler structure than what it replaced. What’s not yet known is how the Ford health-care regime will work in real life and how it will get local health professionals to work together.

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Ontario Health Teams: Integrated Governance and Funding

Thursday, April 25th, 2019

The self-assessment form requires each applicant… to demonstrate: a history of formally working with other providers or organizations to advance integrated care; a plan for physician and clinical engagement, including physician and clinical leadership as part of the team’s leadership and governance structure; a commitment to the vision and goals of the Ontario Health Team model; a commitment to a central brand; and a commitment to working together towards a single clinical and fiscal accountability framework.

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Designation Process for Ontario Health Teams

Friday, April 19th, 2019

… a new model to integrate care and funding that will enable patients, families, communities and providers to better work together… will be referred to below) as “Ontario Health Teams”… The purpose of this bulletin is to provide an overview of the application process for Ontario Health Teams… Significant dates in respect of the process for designation as an Ontario Health Team are included…

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In Ontario, a battle for the soul of psychiatry

Sunday, April 7th, 2019

The ministry’s proposed new approach, modelled on U.S.-style, managed care, is designed to limit the type and amount of treatment individual patients will receive, regardless of their presenting symptoms… If it goes through, it will be the biggest change in psychiatry in the history of the discipline in Canada, and turn psychiatrists from “treaters” into “consultants” who will diagnose patients in a single session, and make recommendations for others to follow, then wave goodbye.

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Ontario’s response to the opioid crisis? Offer less help, and fewer answers

Monday, April 1st, 2019

Using Orwellian doublespeak – plus a dash of Trumpian random capitalization – the government was not announcing that it was “continuing to build a connected mental health and addictions treatment system”, but rather that it was cutting the legs from under four badly-needed overdose prevention sites, rejecting two others, and continuing to drag its feet on funding of additional sites.

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On Pharmacare, the Liberals offer big questions and small investments

Wednesday, March 20th, 2019

… If [the federal government] were to directly fund and manage drug coverage, there would be less integration in the management of overall health care costs and provinces would have less incentive for cost-effective choices between drugs and other inputs to health care… One hopes that the final report on the Implementation of National Pharmacare will… clarify the intended scope of public drug coverage and Ottawa’s intended role in a new national pharmacare system.

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A glimpse into the future of health care in Ontario

Sunday, March 3rd, 2019

St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, specifically at its Integrated Comprehensive Care (ICC) program… started as a pilot back in 2012. Known then as the “bundled care” program, it was designed to connect surgical patients with a single team of clinicians who could care for them before, during and after their operations… It has resulted in a savings of up to $4,000 per patient, a 30 per cent reduction in emergency department visits and 30 per cent reduction in hospital readmissions, a savings of more than 30,000 bed days and an increase in patient satisfaction, according to the hospital.

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The Ford government’s health reform is clear as mud

Friday, March 1st, 2019

The possibility that these teams, which might include doctors and hospitals, along with home care agencies and long-term care homes, could share one budget has the potential to deliver positive change. It would provide a clearer incentive to ensure that patients can access the right care in the right place, which generally costs far less than waiting for things to escalate into crisis. But if this is also the government’s way to shave dollars out of the health budget, that potential goes right out the window.

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Is it too late to reconsider Ontario’s new health care super agency?

Thursday, February 28th, 2019

… the government will create a super agency called Ontario Health, which will become the single point of accountability for all health services in the province… It seems our ministry is forecasting several years of turgid inertia while Ontario Health and Ontario Health Teams organize their new structures… Massive new bureaucracy, maintenance of old bureaucracy and a low rules environment where we will design the future of Ontario health systems “on the fly.”

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