Ontario's Health Minister George
Smitherman wants to cure the province's ailing healthcare
system by injecting it with a healthy dose of efficiency
� and he's enlisted a crack team of key stakeholders to
help him do it.
The Integrated Task Force (ITF)
is exploring how to implement Local Health Integration
Networks (LHINs) � the patient-centred model of care
that lies at the heart of Mr Smitherman's acronym-heavy
vision. LHINs aim to take pressure off Ontario's understaffed,
overstuffed hospitals by letting communities manage
their own healthcare destinies. They'll record and organize
patients' experiences with doctors, specialists, hospitals
and homecare, and use the data to make the transition
from one provider to another as seamless as possible.
Joe Mapa, president and CEO of
Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and chair of the ITF,
calls the task force an "intellectual, versus advocacy,
initiative." It's made up of 14 other healthcare heavy
hitters, like the Ontario Association of Community Care
Access Centres, OMA, Cancer Care Ontario, Sierra Systems
and the Canadian Mental Health Association. The task
force met throughout the summer and will present its
findings at the Ontario Hospital Association convention
in November.
LABYRINTH
OF CARE
At present, patients have to find their own way through
the maze of agencies, facilities and providers that
we call the healthcare system. This can be inefficient
and time consuming, as they often have to repeat their
histories to each provider and have tests redone.
In theory, decentralized LHINs
will put the kibosh on such inefficiencies and make
the whole process much faster and easier. They'll help
with each stage of treatment and recovery, including
setting up appointments with caregivers and arranging
patients' access to their records.
SCOPE
TO THE GROUND
Three areas of healthcare reform are under the ITF's
microscope: functional � money matters, staffing, information
management, marketing and quality improvement; clinical
� continuity of care, disease management, transfer of
records, communication between caregivers; and physical
� common medical staff, shared credentialing, group
practice activity and more.
Plus, the ITF will explore how
Community Care Access Centres, MDs and longterm care
homes can work together to meet their unique local healthcare
needs.
THINK
LOCALLY
"What we're doing is exploring the critical success
factors of integrated initiatives, such as regional
planning, regional funding and policy planning," says
Mr Mapa. "We need to have the integrated parties, where
the community and public health work together."
"The move toward local voluntary
governance is a great way of approaching this issue,"
he adds. "The idea is to facilitate change without throwing
the baby out with bathwater. We need to blend the best
of what we have and build on our strengths."
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