TRANSFORMING OUR HEALTH SYSTEM THROUGH BOLD, COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP

TRANSFORMING OUR HEALTH SYSTEM THROUGH BOLD, COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIPAcross their lives, people in our communities will seek care and support from several different health service providers throughout Waterloo Wellington. Our ability to provide our communities with a high-quality, exceptional, sustainable and seamless health system relies, now more than ever before, on how we work together to develop an integrated, collaborative system of care.

ROLE OF THE WATERLOO WELLINGTON LHINStaff at the Waterloo Wellington LHIN work to fund, integrate and improve health services to support the health and well-being of approximately 775,000 residents in Waterloo Region, Wellington County, the City of Guelph and the southern part of Grey County. We also work with health service providers, governors and community service agencies to help plan, coordinate and connect health services so that patients receive high-quality, evidence-based, sustainable care seamlessly.

BOLD LEADERSHIP Transformation is needed because we know that ensuring the health of our community depends on so much more than just providing care in hospitals or the community. Equitable access to social supports, housing, food and a continuum of care that supports patients through their journey across all health service providers is vital to improving health and wellness. This requires that we, as leaders, make collaborative decisions that benefit our patients and residents, and improve the entire health system from the patient perspective.

Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network Waterloo Wellington LHIN @WW_LHIN

OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUClearly defined roles, responsibilities and accountabilities of the Ministry, the LHIN and organization specific Boards is an important part of fostering the collaborative leadership that is necessary for making the health system changes Waterloo Wellington residents deserve.

Boards have a responsibility to represent their organizations but it is also important to understand the responsibility Boards have in the bigger picture – the dots need to be connected across the broader system of care and across the community.

In March of 2014, the Waterloo Wellington LHIN hosted an event to engage system governors in gaining a better understanding of these relationships. The resources from that event, including and in depth presentation by collaborative governance expert, Maureen Quigley, are available here.

To ensure the health system is operating in the best interest of our residents’ health and well-being, each health service provider has a Service Accountability Agreement or SAA with the LHIN.

SAAs are agreements between the Waterloo Wellington LHIN and our health service providers. SAAs outline the responsibilities and accountabilities that our health service providers have committed to achieving within an organizational and health system context as well as target performance indicators. You can find the SAA for your organization here.

Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network Waterloo Wellington LHIN @WW_LHIN

“The decisions you make as a Board directly affect your partners and their patients. It is the collective responsibility of the system to make decisions that are in the best interest of residents’ health and well-being.”

- Joan Fisk, Waterloo Wellington LHIN, Chair

OUR PLANOur plan for health system transformation is in alignment with the priorities outlined in the Ontario’s Patients First: Ontario’s Action Plan for Health Care:

PUTTING PATIENTS FIRST• Support Ontarians to make healthier choices and help prevent

disease and illness.

• Engage Ontarians on health care, so we fully understand their needs and concerns.

• Focus on people, not just their illness.

• Provide care that is coordinated and integrated, so a patient can get the right care from the right providers.

• Help patients understand how the system works, so they can find the care they need when and where they need it.

• Make decisions that are informed by patients, so they play a major role in affecting system change.

• Be more transparent in health care, so Ontarians can make in-formed choices.

Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network Waterloo Wellington LHIN @WW_LHIN

INTEGRATED HEALTH SERVICE PLANThe Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has given each LHIN the responsibility of developing and implementing a strategic plan for the health system of the geographic area they represent. That plan, the Integrated Health Service Plan (IHSP), is based on direction provided in the provincial plan as well as feedback from residents, health service providers, governors and many others. The IHSP is the roadmap for the health system transformation - all health service providers are obligated to align with and implement the plan. Read our current IHSP, here.

The 2013-2016 IHSP has defined three priorities for improving the health system in Waterloo Wellington:

• Enhancing access to primary care

• Creating a more seamless and coordinated health care experience

• Leading a quality health care system using evidence-based best practice

Under our three priorities, we have established key objectives to improve the local health system. We have also identified performance indicators that demonstrate progress towards our goals. The targets outlined here are guided by the goal of providing the highest quality health system for our residents and are based on provincial targets or on what clinical evidence suggests results in the best outcomes for residents, whichever is better.

ANNUAL BUSINESS PLANSystem change can be a daunting task and having milestones along the way helps keep us accountable to reaching the goals laid out in the IHSP. The Annual Business Plan spells out the priorities for each year of the period covered by the IHSP and how we plan to progress over the year. Read the current Annual Business Plan, here.

Stay informed: You can sign up to receive our quarterly newsletter by sending an email to waterloowellington@lhins.on.ca

HOW WE MEASURE SUCCESSTo measure our progress towards our collective goals, the Waterloo Wellington LHIN has designed a system performance dashboard. You can find the dashboard here. It is updated and circulated to health service providers monthly.

CELEBRATING SUCCESS:We are proud of the progress we have made together to improve the health system. This progress is best demonstrated through the stories of our residents and health service providers. Our Community Report is produced annually and shares these inspiring resident stories and provides insight into how these stories point us towards areas of continued opportunity for improvement. Our quarterly newsletter features resident stories but also incorporates the perspective of our team of providers to demonstrate how, when we work together, meaningful change is accomplished.

SYSTEM WIDE SUPPORTGary was 55-years old when he suffered a heart attack that left him with a severe brain injury. Gary was taken to St. Mary’s General Hospital for immediate care, but hospital staff knew he needed an intensive acquired brain injury (ABI) assessment and access to rehabilitation as soon as possible to allow Gary to recover as much quality of life as possible.

Unfortunately, other patients were also waiting to receive the same care and Gary was placed on a waiting list. He stayed in hospital, waiting, as an alternate level of care patient.

Staff at the hospital connected Gary and his family with an ABI specialized nurse practitioner and together, they built a plan that would allow him to wait at home with the help of intensive and specialized support until a space opened.

He was released from the hospital and accepted into the Traverse Independence Transitional Living unit. There, staff worked with him for the next six weeks to establish daily routines, memory aids, and build his independence in the community.

Over the next year, Gary was able to gradually reduce the amount of support he needed from several hours a day to just a few hours each week - all while living at home with his wife and children.

The care and support that was provided to Gary from across the system gave him back his life. Gary’s needs were, and still are, very complex but his health outcome has been a success because of collaboration. Health service providers from all levels of care are coming to the table with the Waterloo Wellington LHIN to find ways to put patients first.

BOLD LEADERSHIP STARTS WITH YOUAs you move forward in your role as a governor in our health system, we, and the residents of Waterloo Wellington, look to you, and other health system governors, to lead exceptional organizations while working with us and other community partners to connect, collaborate, and make decisions that creates a high-quality, exceptional, sustainable and seamless health system for the health and well-being of our residents.

We invite you to contact us with any questions or suggestions. Your feedback is vital and we are listening.

Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network Waterloo Wellington LHIN @WW_LHIN

Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network

50 Sportsworld Crossing Road, East Building, Suite 220, Kitchener, Ontario N2P 0A4Local: 519-650-4472 • Toll-Free: 1-866-306-LHIN (5446) • Fax: 519-650-3155

Website: wwlhin.on.ca • Email: waterloowellington@lhins.on.ca

Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network Waterloo Wellington LHIN @WW_LHIN