About Ontario Health Teams

Introduced by the provincial government in February 2019, Ontario Health Teams (OHTs) are a new model of health care delivery that puts patients, families and caregivers at the centre of the health care system. OHTs are intended to improve the coordination of care and services for patients and their families/caregivers across multiple care settings.

The vision is to better connect different parts of the health care system by bringing together, as one team, patients, families, communities, providers and system leaders to deliver more coordinated care for people in a defined geographic area. The members of this team, even if in different organizations or physical locations, will work together toward common goals for improving access to, and delivery of, local health care services.

More information about OHTs is available from the Ministry of Health.

Objectives

The province’s vision is that, in time, every Ontarian will have access to an Ontario Health Team (OHT). This collaborative health care delivery model is expected to achieve results that are aligned with the ‘Quintuple Aim’ – an internationally-recognized framework for the design of effective health care systems.

The five objectives of the Quintuple Aim are:

  • Enhancing patient and caregiver experience;
  • Improving patient and population health outcomes;
  • Improving provider work life experience; 
  • Improving value, reducing the per capita cost of health care; and
  • Advancing health equity, building a collaborative and inclusive care team environment.

The OHT Application Process

The journey to form an Ontario Health Team (OHT) for Northumberland involved many steps:

  • February 26, 2019: Province introduces 'The People's Health Care Act' and OHT model 
  • April 3, 2019: Province issues a call for community networks interested in forming an OHT to submit an initial ‘self-assessment’ application. All communities will, in time, adopt the OHT model, however the application process has been designed to assess the local network’s current state of readiness to form an OHT.  Providers and organizations eligible to collaborate in an OHT include, but are not limited to, those that provide:
    • Primary care (eg. family physician groups)
    • Secondary care (hospitals)
    • Home care
    • Health promotion and disease prevention
    • Community support services
    • Mental health and addictions
    • Long-term care
    • Other social and community services, as needed by the population
  • May 15, 2019: Ontario Health Team of Northumberland (OHT-N) submits, to Ministry of Health, an assessment of our readiness to form an OHT
  • July 18, 2019: Ministry of Health finalizes its review of the initial 150 applications and invites 31 applicants that are demonstrating 'a high degree of readiness' - including the OHT-N - to submit a full application to form an OHT
  • October 9, 2019: OHT-N submits a full application to the Ministry of Health
  • November 15, 2019: Ministry of Health representatives conduct a site visit with OHT-N partners as part of the application review process
  • December 6, 2019: Deputy Premier and Minister of Health Christine Elliott visits Northumberland to announce the OHT-N as one of the first 24 OHTs in the province

The province will continue to accept, assess and evaluate groups interested in becoming an OHT.