"Improving our healthcare experience together – where people are heard, care is connected,
and whole health is possible for everyone"
Western Ontario Health Team August 2021 Activities
We hope you had a chance to safely reconnect with family and loved ones over the summer. The past 17 months have been a challenge for all of us, navigating changes inside the system as healthcare workers, and staying connected while staying safe as a patient or caregiver.

We have also learned new ways to support each other, and opportunities to improve our health care experience together. The Western OHT continues to be involved in the regional response to COVID-19, while maintaining action to better support people living with advanced Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), who are in need of system-level care coordination or navigation, with a special emphasis on those at risk of institutionalization.
WELCOME NEW STUDENTS TO THE OPERATIONS TEAM
We welcomed two students, Konain Ali and Sehan Punchihewa, who will be focusing on collecting/collating referral forms (current state). Excited to welcome more students this month!
DEFINING HEALTH EQUITY
We adopted the Health Quality Ontario definition of Health Equity: “Health equity allows people to reach their full health potential and receive high-quality care that is fair and appropriate to them and their needs, no matter where they live, what they have, or who they are.”

We invite you to think about how you can personally contribute to improving health equity across our healthcare system.
CO-DESIGN WORKING GROUPS & SESSIONS
We have completed many discovery phase interviews, connecting with patients, care partners, and providers to capture current experiences in the system for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Congestive Heart Failure (CHF).

Through our discovery phase interviews, we identified system success that our OHT can leverage and scale, including exemplary care coordination, innovative EMR technology, and virtual care.

We also identified system challenges for which our OHT can support the co-design and implementation of solutions, including access to and awareness of services, and care and action planning.


Join a working group to co-design system solutions

We are starting to establish some working groups to explore the themes mentioned above further. Contribute your ideas and feedback by joining one of the working groups listed below:
 
  • Working Group 1 – Referral Management: The current referral process is complex and fragmented; we want to co-design solutions to improve this process.
  • Working Group 2 – Access to and Awareness of Services: We heard that patients and care partners are not regularly being referred to available community supports. Providers also have difficulty maintaining awareness of all available services. Help us co-design tools and resources to enhance awareness of services.
  • Working Group 3: Care and Action Planning: Care plans are not always provided to patients, and accessing key information can be time-consuming and challenging for providers. Help us co-develop system solutions to tackle this challenge. 

Contact Jacobi Elliot if you are interested in joining one of these groups.

Save The Date: Co-Design Sessions, October 19th or October 21

Join us for a session to co-define health system problems and prioritize areas of improvement for the Western OHT.

Work with patients living with COPD and/or CHF, their care partners and health care providers from across the system in this interactive virtual session.

  • Session One: Tuesday, October 19, 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
  • Session Two: Thursday, October 21, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

More details and registration link to come next week!
Get involved with Western OHT
Formalize your membership
We are happy to welcome new membership agreements from 1 Community Organization, 6 Health Organizations, and 1 Individual Member.

Becoming a member of the Western OHT signals support for the Western OHT’s work to improve our healthcare experience together, moving forward. There are four types of membership agreements: Healthcare Organization, Community Organization, Individual Member, Cluster.

If you would like to learn more about formalizing your membership, please reach out to Western OHT Lead Amber Alpaugh-Bishop: Amber.Alpaugh-Bishop@westernoht.ca
Please share this update with your sector/cluster!

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We are thankful for the hard work of our Coordinating Council. View current membership list here.

If you have any questions, reach out at info@westernoht.ca.