Media Coverage

Kingston This Week, Project Aims to Smooth Route from Hospital to Home (Feb. 15)

The local agency in charge of moving patients from hospital to home is working on improving the process and freeing up acute care hospital beds.
The South East Community Care Access Centre (SECCAC) and Quinte Health Care Trenton Memorial have been chosen as the first participants in a project to improve the difficult — and delayed — transition from hospital to home.
The project, called “Having their Say & Choosing their Way: helping patients and caregivers move from hospital to home,” is funded by The Change Foundation, in partnership with the Ontario Association of Community Care Access Centres (OACCAC).
The first meeting of the local project team was launched this week 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,” said Dave Murray, the lead executive on 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,” he added.
The project will pinpoint problems in the transition from hospital to home in three regions across Ontario, starting in southeastern Ontario and Quinte regions.
Home could be a personal residence, retirement home, long-term care home or supportive housing.
The project is in response to the present situation where, across the province, thousands of patients remain in hospital when they should be receiving care elsewhere.
In Ontario in 2005/06, there were 600,000 days that patients spent in hospitals when it was medically unnecessary for them to be there (known as alternative-level-of-care or ALC days) — the equivalent capacity of six 270-bed hospitals.
The ALC rate for South East Ontario exceeded 20 per cent during 2006, well above the provincial rate of 14 per cent.
The most recent quarter recorded for QHC Trenton Memorial showed an ALC rate of more than 35 per cent.
Officials say a good step would be to address inefficiences: reduce the number of times patients are asked for the same information and by providing consistent and complete information about post-acute options.
“The South East CCAC and Quinte Health Care are committed to work 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,” said Dave Marshall, the executive director of the Kingston-area Community Care Access Centre.
Paul Huras, CEO of the Local Health Integrated Network for the area, welcomed the project which he said could be particularly helpful for the area, given the area's 20 per cent ALC rate and its aging population. This area has the highest percentage of people aged 75 and over.