Ontario recently announced a new approach aimed to help people transition more smoothly out of hospital and into their homes. Six communities across the province will be part of a new bundled care approach to healthcare, which will provide a single payment to a team of health providers to cover care for people in hospital and at home.
With a bundled care approach, an individual’s health care team remains the same as they move throughout the system.
In this approach, services are coordinated around the person’s needs, with the aim of decreased emergency department visits and lower risk of being readmitted to hospital. In addition, as a person moves throughout the system and back to their home, most of their health care team will remain the same.
This 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 journey that should be more seamless from hospital to home to help people who need:
- 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.
Ontario plans to support additional bundled care teams in the coming year based on the results of these projects.
For more information, visit the Government of Ontario website.