Hospital discharge, medical records programs launched via Sarnia-Lambton Ontario Health Team

More direction for Ontario’s health teams is exciting news, even if Sarnia-Lambton’s isn’t among the dozen selected for increased responsibilities for home care, an official with the organization says.

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“It’s exciting because I think we kind of know the direction,” said Sarnia-Lambton Ontario Health Team collaboration council co-chair Kathy Bresett.

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Sarnia-Lambton can align its work with Health Ministry targets set for the OHTs being accelerated, including developing patient navigation solutions that integrate with Health811, developing a home care readiness plan for the eventual delivery of home care, and establishing primary care networks, Bresett said .

“So, we would then be considered, hopefully, in the next round for the funding.”

Up to $43 million is being provided to the accelerated OHTs, officials said in a recent announcement.

That’s on top of stable baseline funding of $750,000 a year to all 57 OHTs in the province, Bresett said.

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“Before, it was kind of a year by year thing,” she said about funding.

“So, that’s good news we’ll have that stability.”

Work has been ongoing meanwhile within the health team, since it was approved in late 2020 as a new organization for local health care spending oversight, said interim executive lead Nadine Neve.

“It’s an exciting time to be in an OHT right now,” she said.

The collaboration council includes 35 health and social service agencies and the health team has been focused on things such as simplifying access to electronic medical records, diversity and inclusion efforts, and making health care system navigation easier, said Neve, who took over for former executive lead Steve Pancino in late July, officials said.

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Bresett said she couldn’t talk about the circumstances of Pancino’s departure, but said hopes are to have a replacement in place by early 2024.

The health team launched a 2022-2027 strategic plan last year that includes focuses on increasing access to primary care and community-based services, Neve said.

One initiative called Let’s Go Home with Homeward Bound started in April with a Red Cross official in Sarnia’s hospital, helping set up people being discharged with the right community services and supports such as ride homes, meals and other help so they don’t end up back in hospital.

It’s one of the latest efforts to curb the number of people who remain in hospital who don’t need acute care, but can’t leave because they have nowhere else to go, she said.

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Bluewater Health’s so-called alternate level of care (ALC) rate for all inpatient services was 16.1 per cent as of June, the most recent data from the hospital group for Petrolia and Sarnia says.

The target is 13.6 per cent of beds used for ALC patients, and lower is better because otherwise it can lead to bottlenecks at admissions, and surging emergency waits, officials have said.

Similar programs to Let’s Go Home exist in other Ontario Health Teams in the Ontario Health West region, Neve said.

The ALC data shows rates holding steady, she said, ahead of the expected surge for hospital care amid respiratory illness season.

The health team also has been involved in an Age Friendly Sarnia-Lambton website refreshintroducing a Connection Cube at the downtown Sarnia Library, and encouraging more electronic referrals between medical care providers, she said.

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The agency recently announced public access to ConnectMyHealth, for things such as radiology reports and images, laboratory and microbiology results and hospital discharge summaries.

Access to the electronic health records database, managed by the HITS eHealth Office at Hamilton Health Sciences, and funded by Ontario Health, is another way to help patients be more involved in their own care, said Neve, noting it’s available for anyone age 16 and older to use.

“An end goal is building stronger relationships with their health care providers,” she said. “Just being more informed of their own care. And I think that obviously fits into the system navigation piece.”

Details are at info.connectmyhealth.ca.

[email protected]

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