CRITICAL ENABLERS OF TRANSFORMATION

Beyond the five priorities: Advancing the critical enablers of transformation

The IHSP-2 priorities are enabled by a number of factors. Two areas in particular warrant further elaboration: health equity and e-health.

1. Health equity

Health equity is of particular concern in the Toronto Central LHIN, where the range and diversity of incomes, languages, education and other cultural and socio-economic factors have led to disparities in access to services and in health outcomes. Each of the five priorities in this Plan includes actions for ensuring everyone in the LHIN has the same access to ER care, diabetes and mental health and addictions services, and community-based care options that reflect individual needs and circumstances. A number of cross-cutting health equity initiatives will also contribute to the success of all IHSP-2 priorities.

Drawing on insights from the Hospital Health Equity Plans, which were submitted in early 2009, and on consultations with health service providers and consumers, four overall initiatives have been prioritized to improve health equity over the next three years:

• Develop and implement a LHIN-wide language and interpretation model to set standards, achieve consistency and improve access to the supports non-English speaking individuals need to communicate with their care teams.
• Build obligations to promote health equity into accountability agreements starting with Hospital Service Accountability Agreements and extending to other sectors in future years.
• Identify a common set of hospital and system-level data critical to measuring, developing and evaluating strategies to address health inequities. The LHIN will also begin to collect health equity data and information related to the five priorities in this Plan.
• Introduce the Health Equity Impact Assessment tool, developed by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Toronto Central LHIN, into health service provider and LHIN planning and decision-making, starting with Aging at Home in 2011/12.

2. e-health

E-health tools and initiatives have already resulted in significant changes in health care, bringing tremendous advances in patient safety and the management of surgical wait times in Ontario.

Compared to other provinces and sectors, however, Ontario health care is not as advanced in the use of information technology to improve service delivery and patients’ experiences with the health system. As such, e-health is an essential component in the LHIN’s priorities for the next three years as well as an overall imperative for transforming health care in the Toronto Central LHIN.

Over the next three years:

• The Toronto Central LHIN will work with other LHINs to implement electronic tools that will integrate clinical information across the continuum and support chronic disease management models being developed, specifically as part of the provincial Diabetes Strategy. These tools include Resource Matching and Referral (RM&R), Connecting GTA, which links clinical and other patient information for health professionals, and the Diabetes Registry.
• The LHIN will also also work on two other important e-health initiatives: the GTA West Diagnostic Imaging Repository, which allows clinicians to view diagnostic images such as MRIs and CTs from other health service provider organizations; and a Patient Portal, which will allow patients and clients to access their personal health information and self-care tools, and communicate with their health care team.