Ontario Funds Bundled Care Teams to Improve Patient Experience

Province Expands Coordinated Team Approach to Provide Seamless Service to Patients

Sept. 2, 2015 – Hamilton, Ontario

Patients in six communities across the province will now benefit from an approach called bundled care, which is helping people transition more smoothly out of hospital and into their homes.

The bundled care model provides a single payment to a team of health care providers to cover care for patients both in the hospital and at home. As a patient moves throughout the system and back to their home, the majority of their health care team remains the same. Services are coordinated around the patient’s needs, resulting in fewer emergency department visits and less risk of being readmitted to hospital.

Since 2011, the bundled care approach has been successfully piloted at St. Joseph’s Health System in Hamilton, and is now being expanded across the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network and to five new communities. The teams will support a more seamless journey from hospital to home to help patients who require:

• Care for conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, stroke and cardiac surgery recovery
• Nursing interventions for conditions including urinary tract infections and cellulitis.

The province plans to support additional bundled care teams in the coming year based on the results of these projects.

Moving forward with bundled care is one of 10 steps outlined in Patients First: A Roadmap to Strengthen Home and Community Care, the government’s plan to strengthen home and community care in Ontario over the next three years. It is also part of the government’s plan to build a better Ontario through its Patients First: Action Plan for Health Care, which is providing patients with faster access to the right care, better home and community care, the information they need to stay healthy and a health care system that is sustainable for generations to come.

 

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