*"Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed."* -Irene Peter
		Report offers insights on successes/failures of shifts to regional health care; Ontario health execs engage with health care's Who's Who They came, they engaged, they agreed: changes to health governance structures must come with the right levers and long-term vision to achieve a high quality integrated health system and better health. During The Change Foundation's inaugural May 2008 Meeting of the Minds, about 30 senior health-care leaders from the LHINs and all sectors engaged with a stellar line-up of speakers who've led health-care regionalization across the country: current/former CEOs of RHAs and hospitals, deputy ministers, a past royal commissioner of health and leading authorities on health regionalization. Advice for Ontario? Bring primary care and public health under the integration umbrella, and don't forget public engagement. Said participant Diane McArthur (Executive Coordinator, Health and Social Policy, Cabinet Office): "This was one of the best sessions I've ever attended ... really superb. It had an excellent cross-section of decision-makers, policy and front-line leaders fully engaged in meaningful discussion about our health-care system." Read "Highlights of an Invitational Exchange - Lessons & Confessions from the Regionalized Health-care Front." See photos from the event.
		Hospital-to-Home project reports progress from Toronto site A collaborative project (The Change Foundation and the Ontario Association of Community Care Access Centres) studying the complex patient journey from hospital to home or to long-term care aims to improve this experience by listening and learning directly from patients. Phase two of Having Their Say and Choosing Their Way: helping patients and caregivers move from hospital to home is underway at the Toronto Western Hospital and the Toronto Central CCAC where consultants are mapping both journeys and have provided an interim report. Two groups of eight-to-ten elderly patients transitioning from hospital to subsequent care settings are being interviewed to better understand what services and information they value during these moves. These in-depth, one-to-one home interviews, conducted with supportive family (or substitute decision makers) present, capture all the decisions and arrangements with different service providers. Many of these patients face linguistic challenges, adding another layer of difficulty in finding their way through the system. When asked where they'd start when looking for help at home, a typical interviewee having recent experience receiving home care answered: "I don't know. I'd have to call some agency, you know, some agency." "Many health-care projects are geared to studying patient "flow" through various parts of our system, but our unique focus here is to find practical ways to improve the actual experience as they move through these passages. Do they have all the supports and information they need to make the best care decisions?" said Toronto Central CCAC Senior Director of Client Services, Stacey Daub. The Change Foundation and OACCAC will receive a final report in the spring of 2009 that encompasses and compares findings from the two phases. The first phase took place at Quinte Health Care's Trenton Memorial with the South East CCAC. Phase 1 findings reflected process complexity (160 transition steps)and patient confusion. The final report will be shared widely, including with senior directors at CCACs, to promote the development of leading practices for proactive community placement and support.
		Symposium on adverse events in the community identifies need for action; issues to get airing in Healthcare Quarterly early in new year Despite the growing demand for safe community care, we don't know near enough about adverse events (AE) in homes and community settings across Canada (we don't even have a standardized definition). That's why The Change Foundation is supporting research to help remedy this gap and identify changes to policy and practice that can help prevent adverse events in the community. Learn more in an article, Adverse Events in Community Care: Implications for Practice, Policy and Research by Paul Masotti, Michael Green and Mary Ann McColl, to appear in the new year in Longwoods Healthcare Quarterly. The paper is based on results from an April 2008 symposium funded by The Change Foundation in partnership with Queen's University's Centre for Health Services and Policy Research and the South East CCAC. During the symposium, 31 professionals from 18 organizations with expertise in home-care services, administration, primary care, patient safety, health policy and research discussed changes to policy and practice to enhance patient safety and identified further research to inform analysis and evidence-based decision-making. The Foundation plans to build on this learning to define future work.
		Updates from CHQI at The Change Foundation: CHQI Quality Congress to celebrate Flo successes & Quality by Design book a best seller! The Centre for Healthcare Quality Improvement at The Change Foundation is hosting an invitational event January 15-16 to celebrate the groundbreaking work of the Flo Collaborative. The Flo Collaborative Quality Congress is the culmination of a 16-month-long journey for 46 Ontario organizations -- including acute care hospitals, Rehab/CCC hospitals and CCACs -- to improve care processes related to patient flow from acute care to subsequent care destinations. Five hundred Ontario health-care leaders will attend, including senior executives and on-the-ground improvement teams who have worked diligently since September 2007 under the mentorship of CHQI and its earlier iteration as the Ministry of Health's Ontario Health Performance Initiative. CHQI will continue to act as a resource to participating organizations as their quality improvements spread and take root. Since its October launch, High Performing Healthcare Systems: Delivering Quality by Design has received over 60,000 downloads on Longwoods' website. The book's lead author, Ross Baker from the University of Toronto, received a research grant from CHQI's predecessor, OHPI. Download a free copy from Longwoods and look for a related Knowledge Translation Kit (chqi.ca) later this month.
		*Pump up your presentations with Change Chart Packs...* The Change Foundation has created the first in a series of Change Chart Packs - downloadable data from various sources about a range of health-care issues in Ontario, from funding and health-care integration to service utilization and informal caregiving. Add context and content to an upcoming PowerPoint presentation or report. Stay tuned for more Change Chart Packs based on data generated from The Change Foundation's own research and analysis. To access, click here.
		Website survey shows you're using our work for your work; feedback on new site helpful & happy Thanks for filling us in with your helpful - and happy - responses to our first website survey. It's been just over a year since we launched our new website, and we're pleased to learn that almost all of you (89%) use our work in your work: you cite our resources in your reports, you scan our materials to learn more about Ontario health care and you turn to us for ideas to help plan or propose health-care projects. Over 80% of you rated our content and design as good or excellent. We will work hard over the coming year to heed your suggestions, such as introducing alerts for new content and producing more of our well-used Facing the Facts fact sheets. You can tell us how we've done in our next annual survey. Congratulations to our three website survey prize winners, chosen by random draw. (Prizes: IPod Shuffles and an individual subscription to Longwoods Publishing, donated by the Publisher). And the winners are: Charles Beer, Counsel Public Affairs Inc. & OHAfrica Board Member. Said Beer: "I particularly enjoy the multimedia part of the site. I am of an age where to be able to miss meetings and still replay all the speeches and see all the photos is awesome." Kevin de Jong (Improvement Advisor, Grey Bruce Health Services) Katie Dainty (Director, Centre for Health Services Sciences Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre)
		Brain whole grains -- Try the latest Change Foundation acrostic challenge Continue to build your brain amid the many distractions of the merry season by taking our second acrostic challenge. Test your tête with our December 2008 puzzle which, once answered, will reveal a quote connected to the why and how of community engagement in health care. To get started, download the acrostic software, and fill out the puzzle. (See completed sample from last time here) Acrostic summit climbers, send in the completed version by fax or email to Anila Sunnak, asunnak@changefoundation.com or (fax: 416-205-1440) by Friday, January 9 to have a chance at winning a $45 Chapters gift certificate. Look for the completed puzzle on our website on Monday, January 12.