Change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires change.
-Henry Steele Commager-
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Project to shed new light on home care use by chronic disease group
The Change Foundation is partnering with respected University of Waterloo health studies and gerontology professor John Hirdes to provide a descriptive analysis of the users of home care in Ontario by disease grouping. Results from this work, which began in early April, will give us a sense of who is using which type of home-care services in each Local Health Integration Network. The quality improvement project will mine data gathered using the International Resident Assessment Instrument for Home Care (RAI-HC).
"Most of the current research on chronic disease management focuses on primary care, and the role of home care has been overlooked," says Foundation CEO Cathy Fooks. "As our population ages, and chronic disease rates and the need for home care grow, it is important to start connecting the dots to discern trends and emerging issues for more effective system-wide decisions."
The project will also look at hospital re-admissions after home-care service use.
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The Foundation outlines upcoming exchanges, announces 1st Meeting of the Minds
Disseminating reports is one way to get the goods to health-care stakeholders, but research shows that face-to-face engagement is likely to have a greater and more lasting effect. That's what The Change Foundation is aiming for with its series of exchange events, including its signature Meeting of the Minds. To find out what timely health-care issues will be debated by whom and how,
read on.
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Finding their way 'home' -- patients & caregivers weigh in
In February, The Change Foundation, in partnership with the Ontario Association of Community Care Access Centres, launched a quality improvement project called Having their Say and Choosing their Way. The project, now well underway in the South East CCAC and Quinte Health Care's Trenton Memorial, will pinpoint problems in patients' often
difficult - and delayed - transition from hospital to home. An interim report is due in May. In the meantime, lead consultant Jeff Doleweerd reports that 15 interviews with patients and their informal caregivers have been completed. These in-depth one-on-one sessions covered a wide range of experiences - people going to retirement homes, long-term care homes, and back home with home-care assistance. In a collective value statement, patients said: "I want accurate and understandable information, given at the right time, including viable choices, so my family and I can make the right decision for us."
Says Doleweerd: "Later in April, we will be involving families in the 'design room' to rethink some of the ways information and care is provided to see if more co-ordinated and clearer pathways can be imagined."
The project will be rolled out in two more Ontario regions; the second sites will be announced later this spring. Read local
media coverage.
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Joint Open House attracts health-care community
Some of Ontario's finest health-care minds mixed and mingled with Change Foundation staff and board members March 27 at The Change Foundation's joint Open House with our office-mates from the Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario (CAHO). The informal Toronto soiree attracted over 100 visitors from all parts of our health-care system as well as officials from both the federal and provincial government.
See pictures from this recent event.
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April 2008
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Q and A with OHA President and CEO,
Tom Closson
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Tom Closson on health-care regionalization in Manitoba and more...
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Upcoming
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Save the date: The Foundation's AGM, June 12 (MaRS Discovery Centre, Toronto)
Stay tuned for health integration case studies from UK, New Zealand and more...
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Resources
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The Change Foundation, P.O. Box 42, 200 Front Street West, Suite 2501, Toronto, ON, M5V 3M1, Phone: 416.205.1353, Fax: 416.205.1440
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