The Caring@Home blog welcomes a guest post from The Change Foundation.
Many of us have seen first-hand the devastating effect that one hospital admission can have on our loved one. Hospital stays can be a huge challenge to our seniors – many go on a downward spiral after they’re admitted. Programs, services and care providers need to take special note when caring for our aging loved ones.
Just over a year ago, The Change Foundation announced its most ambitious project – Partners Advancing Transitions in Healthcare (PATH): A first with Ontario patients. The goal of PATH is to engage and support a community coalition of health-care providers, patients and caregivers that wants to improve overall health-care delivery.
Over the past year, the Foundation has sought one community or region in Ontario that has committed to improving people’s health-care experiences. On June 5, the Foundation announced it’s investing $3 million in the Northumberland Community Partnership. This groundbreaking gesture will help many organizations and facilities support the care and well being of our aging population.
The Northumberland Community Partnership unites 12 health and social care organizations with patients and caregivers. Together, they will identify health-care transition problems across east-central Ontario and work with a full range of service providers to redesign care and improve experiences. The Northumberland PATH, led by Northumberland Hills Hospital, is the first system-wide patient/caregiver/provider co-design venture of its kind in Ontario. The two-year project aligns well with the patient-centred care emphasis in Ontario’s Action Plan for Health Care, and with the region’s commitment to build excellence in seniors’ care.
The Change Foundation aims to improve people’s health-care experiences as they move throughout Ontario’s health-care system. The Foundation is focusing on seniors with chronic health conditions, and their caregivers, because they frequently navigate a wide range of services. The Foundation is putting most of its money and might into PATH which invites patients and caregivers to the table as partners, and draws on their experiences to help identify and address transition problems.
The Northumberland community has the power to change their local health-care system so that there is an improvement in the transitional care of seniors and the management of their widespread chronic health conditions, according to Cathy Fooks, CEO, The Change Foundation. Taking small steps towards change will allow the Foundation to further its wider goal of changing the health-care debate, practice, and experience in Ontario.
The Northumberland Partnership represents a shared vision and commitment to improving patient and caregiver experiences in their transitions – committed to improving the patient experience in and with the health system striving to achieve the best possible outcomes, with the patient and their caregivers at the centre of the care team.
Improving the whole healthcare experience for anyone transitioning between and among healthcare settings should be a priority for all healthcare organizations; this is the focus of PATH – a great example to follow.
The Change Foundation is an independent healthcare think tank, intent on changing the debate, the practice, and the healthcare experience in Ontario. Learn more about The Change Foundation work and history at www.changefoundation.com or by contacting Anila Sunnak, communications specialist; asunnak@changefoundation.com; 416-205-1325.
