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Media Coverage

HIROC News, Hospital, (Natalie Miller) CCAC partner to improve transition from acute care to home (Feb. 20)

An Ontario hospital and local Community Care Access Centre are working together to help make the move from hospital to home smoother for patients.

The South East Community Care Access Centre (SECCAC) and Quinte Health Care's Trenton Memorial site are participating in a project aimed at improving the patient experience through this transition.

The project, 'Having their Say & Choosing their Way: helping patients and caregivers move from hospital to home,' is being funded by The Change Foundation in partnership with The Ontario Association of Community Care Access Centres (OACCAC).

It was officially launched on Tuesday, Feb. 12 with the first meeting of the local project team in Trenton.

"More and more Ontarians are struggling with the stress, confusion, and uncertainty of deciding on and finding the right care and accommodation for themselves — or a loved one — before leaving hospital," says OACCAC's executive lead Dave Murray, in a news release about the project.

"Patients and their caregivers need answers to questions about options, availability and support. They need a clearer, more co-ordinated transition from hospital to ‘home', with support and the information they need to make good decisions about their futures."

The project is aimed at pinpointing problems in the transition in three regions across Ontario, starting with the SECCAC and QHC Trenton Memorial, The Change Foundation says. "Patients and their caregivers will be consulted about their needs, perspectives and placement preferences to help inform recommendations for changes to process, policy or practice."

Project participants will work with consultants to map out the steps and decisions patients and caregivers make during the transition with the different service providers, whether the patient is returning to his or her home, a retirement home, long-term care home or supportive housing.

Change Foundation research shows thousands of patients remain in hospital when they should be receiving care elsewhere.

In Ontario in 2005-2006, there were 600,000 days patients spent in hospitals when it was medically unnecessary for them to be there. That rate for South East Ontario exceeded 20 per cent during 2006, while the provincial rate was 14 per cent.

Reasons for the delay in discharge are in part attributed to range of policy, practice and resource, present problems for incoming and outgoing patients and their families and caregivers, as well as for hospitals, providers and the whole healthcare system.

The hospital and the local CCAC are committed to working together "to better understand and support patient decision-making, to enable appropriate and timely discharge, and to make the shift from hospital to community more seamless for the people we serve," the news release states.