The roles of hospitals in Ontario are changing, and that change should accelerate with the province's Patients First Act, said Ontario's deputy minister of Health and Long-Term Care.
Deputy minister Dr. Robert Bell was the keynote speaker at Health Sciences North's 2016 annual general meeting.
The topic of his talk was the Patients First Act, which proponents say would transform the province's health-care system for the better.
Part of that transformation would mean an increased focus on home and community care, and a greater role for the public health system and strengthening the foundation of primary care.
“There's a huge role for hospitals to think in an innovative fashion,” he said.
A big part of that innovative thinking, said Bell, means ensuring people aren't admitted to the hospital if they don't have to be.
“By providing better and more home care you actually help to get people out of the hospital that don't necessarily need to be there,” he said.
Bell said the province has increased funding for home and community care by five per cent each of the last three years, and plans to do the same the next fiscal year.
The change from the Patients First Act that has garnered the most attention is a plan to dissolve Ontario's 14 Community Care Access Networks (CCACs) and transfer their responsibilities to the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs).
Bell said the LHINs' broader mandates will allow them to better manage home and community care, and make those services more efficient.
“We have handcuffed our CCACs to a narrow focus on home and community care,” he said. “We have not set them up to provide the kind of integrated care we're talking about.”
In his annual report Health Sciences North president and CEO Dr. Denis Roy said he agrees hospitals need to rethink their role in the health-care system.
“If we are going to be successful in addressing these challenges, we must shift our thinking from the traditional hospital model,” adds Dr. Denis Roy, HSN’s President and CEO. “A hospital must work as part of an entire system of care, one that helps a patient move through the entire spectrum of care, including prevention, primary care, acute care, recovery and rehabilitation.”
