At a monthly meeting held in Elliot Lake on Friday, November 28, the NE LHIN Board of Directors approved a five-point action plan to continue to help resolve ALC pressures in Sudbury, as well as all hospital communities across the North East.
At a monthly meeting held in Elliot Lake on Friday, November 28, the NE LHIN Board of Directors approved a five-point action plan to continue to help resolve ALC pressures in Sudbury, as well as all hospital communities across the North East. The priorities are in keeping with the NE LHIN’s ALC Action Plan (December, 2007) which focuses on relieving ALC pressures through two main strategies: (1) building resource and system capacity and (2) making improvements in care delivery processes. Implementation of the priorities is underway and progress on the effectiveness of each priority will be publicly reported on at monthly board meetings. The priorities include:
Priority 1: Beds and Housing Options
•24 interim transitional beds at Hôpital régional de Sudbury Regional Hospital (November 20, 2008)
•Work with Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) on additional interim transitional beds across the NE LHIN, in keeping with the re-aligned Aging at Home Strategy, Emergency Rooms = ALC.
•Utilize the new NE LHIN Seniors Residential Housing/Options report in planning for future ALC pressures given the NE LHIN’s growing senior’s population.
Priority 2: ALC Wrap Around Services
•Help to reduce the ratio of ALC patients in the hospital by increasing patient’s access to home and community supports.
•Help with discharge of existing ALC patients more quickly and/or prevent a hospital admission by a potential ALC patient.
•Commitment to develop the program in two phases:
1. Timmins and District Hospital is sharing learnings and successes of their implementation of wrap around with hospitals in Sudbury , Sault Ste. Marie, and North Bay;
2. Learning and successes will be shared with remaining NE LHIN hospital communities experiencing high levels of ALC pressures.
Priority 3: Care Pathways (Integrated Care)
•Agreement has been reached from the NE LHIN, NE CCAC and Sudbury hospital administration to work together to determine profiles of ALC clients, clustering profiles into client groups, and building integrated programs around each client group.
•Commitment to develop the program in three phases:
1. In Greater Sudbury community;
2. In large NE LHIN urban communities of: Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay and Timmins;
3. In 21 remaining NE LHIN hospital communities. Priority 4: Nurse Outreach Team
•The NE LHIN is awaiting confirmation from the MOHLTC on the allocation of a Nurse Outreach Team in Sudbury to address patients coming into Emergency Department from Long-Term Care homes.
•The NE LHIN will continue to work with the Ministry on the allocation of additional teams across the North East. Priority 5: Aging at Home
•Knowing that the provincial Aging at Home Strategy has shifted its emphasis to align with the province’s key priority of improving access to emergency services and reducing emergency room wait times so that seniors are cared for in the most appropriate setting, the NE LHIN will continue to work closely with the MOHLTC to ensure Aging at Home funding is adjusted to reflect the ALC pressures in North East hospitals.
QUOTES
Mathilde Gravelle Bazinet, Chair of the North East LHIN noted that, “The NE LHIN is fully committed to working diligently and collaboratively with its partners on its number one priority of ALC. We have seen unprecedented pressures at Sudbury Regional Hospital in the past few weeks and we recognize that many of the NE LHIN’s remaining hospitals are struggling with ALC pressures. Knowing that the growth rate of seniors in our LHIN is projected to increase faster than the overall provincial rate, it is clear that the NE LHIN and all health care partners must continue to work together to solve ALC pressures so that citizens of our region can receive quality health care services in the most appropriate setting.”
QUICK FACTS
•The mandate of the North East LHIN is to plan, integrate and fund health services within North East Ontario (400,000 square kilometres and more than 555,000 people).
•The North East LHIN has the highest rate of ALC patients of any LHIN across the province.
•Since, December, 2007, the North East LHIN has applied all of its sources of new funding to the ALC Issue, which to date has totalled close to $10 million. An additional $14 million is earmarked to be applied over the next two years for Aging at Home programs and services that are aimed to allow seniors to stay in the comfort of their own home longer.
