Interprofessional Care

About Interprofessional Care

Interprofessional care is the provision of comprehensive health services to patients by multiple health care professionals who work collaboratively to deliver the best quality of care in every health care setting. It encompasses partnership, collaboration and a multi-disciplinary approach to enhancing care outcomes and is the cornerstone of the HealthForceOntario strategy.

The current system is unsustainable

Current health status indicators and hospital utilization data in Ontario indicate higher than average rates of chronic health conditions and disease. These are associated with lifestyle behaviours and increased hospitalization in the HNHB LHIN. With no changes in health status and current utilization practices, the anticipated growth in the HNHB LHIN hospital system alone is unsustainable.

What does this mean for our LHIN?

Approximately 12% of the HNHB LHIN population (160,000 people) is without a family physician (derived from the number of underserviced area vacancies multiplied by 1,380 - the benchmark physician: population ratio for family physicians). Inadequate access to primary care, preventative care and self-management awareness contributes to avoidable emergency department visits and hospitalizations. Among primary health and primary health care entities, there is a lack of communication, coordination and use of best practices for optimal outcomes.

Gaps and Barriers

The HNHB LHIN Clinical Services Plan (2009) identified:

• little training and/or exposure to inter-professional care;
• a lack of awareness among health professionals as to respective training and practice scopes, and professional and organizational mandates;
• variable IT capacity and competency with IT; and
• multiple interpretations of client-centred or client-directed care.

The gaps are particularly acute in the areas of chronic disease management, mental health care and care for frail elderly, wherein no practitioner/entity can alone manage optimal care.

Readiness

Readiness is high to expand and adopt interprofessional care. This readiness builds on the Ontario experience with the “team” approach in palliative care, critical care and stroke care, the legacy of health service organizations in Hamilton and the growing numbers of family health teams and community health centres in the HNHB LHIN.