Overview 

Across Canada, access to appropriate health care is an ongoing challenge, and pressures within our health care system have only been heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic. To address these challenges, integrated health care teams across the country are working to help patients receive the care they need in their homes and communities. Through an engaging panel with health care stakeholders from Medavie, the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement and Alberta Health Services, we’ll explore collaborative health care models and the positive impacts they are having on patients. 

 

Learning objectives and how it fits the theme and selected stream 

Modernizing long-term care and reducing hallway medicine are some of the biggest challenges facing our health system in Canada. In keeping with this year’s NHLC theme, ‘Adaptive leadership in complex times’, the panel will demonstrate how adaptive leadership has become necessary in the age of COVID-19, particularly in the face of changing demographics and patient expectations/needs.   

 

Activities, methods, innovations 

We’ve known for years Canada’s diverse communities, aging population and climbing demand for health care are forcing us to adopt a more sustainable path to helping all patients access care and support – when and where they need it. There are great examples of regional systems working to ensure the safety and wellbeing of Canadians; establishing more access points for care, reducing pressures on our hospitals and long-term care facilities, and helping manage the impacts of COVID-19. For instance, community paramedicine programs, palliative care at home programs and others. 

 

Outcomes, results 

In each of the communities served by integrated models of care, the result has been a reduction in unnecessary hospital or emergency department visits and improvements in patients’ quality of life as they’re able to remain in their homes, where they are happiest and healthiest.  

 

Conclusion 

As health solutions partners and leaders, we must ask hard questions about the future of health care in Canada – especially if we are to come out of the pandemic stronger. Through collaborative health care models, we can help people stay healthy and in their homes as long as possible, navigate the health care system when they do need it, and ultimately ensure they receive the right care at the right time. 

 

Panelists 

Matt Crossman – Medavie Health Services 

Maria Judd – Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement 

Ryan Kozicky – Alberta Health Services 

 

Moderator 

Erik Sande – Medavie Health Services