All over Ontario, local health service providers with common goals have come together to form a local team and apply to become an Ontario Health Team. Many teams have included community partners, such as Municipalities or Regions, who also support the health and wellness of their communities.

The Ministry of Health developed a detailed application process to choose what teams would be selected to become the first Ontario Health Teams. Detailed information about the readiness assessment process and the readiness criteria can be found in the Ministry’s guidance document.

The assessment process to become an Ontario Health team will be repeated until full provincial coverage is reached and every Ontarian is supported by an Ontario Health Team.

Health care providers and organizations eligible to become an Ontario Health Team include, but are not limited to those that provide:

• primary care (including inter-professional primary care and physicians)
• secondary care (e.g., in-patient and ambulatory medical and surgical services (includes specialist services)
• home care
• community support services
• mental health and addictions services
• health promotion and disease prevention services
• rehabilitation and complex care
• palliative care (e.g., hospice)
• residential care and short-term transitional care (e.g., in supportive housing, long-term care homes, retirement homes)
• long-term care home placement
• emergency health services
• laboratory and diagnostic services
• midwifery services
• other social and community services and other services, as needed by the population.

Yes. As Ontario Health Teams are established, people's choice of providers would continue.

Patients who are supported by providers who become part of an Ontario Health Team will not need to sign up or undertake any administrative processes. They will experience greater access to care and support from a broader network of other physicians and inter-professional providers, working together as a team to improve their care.

Ontarians will continue to access care from their existing care providers. As Ontario Health Teams are created, Ontarians will be provided with information about the benefits of this model. Ontarians will still be able to choose who provides their care. As the province begins this work, Ontarians can be confident that they can continue to contact their health care providers as they always have access to the health care they need.

Improvements in integrated care through Ontario Health Teams will fundamentally change how patients, families, and caregivers experience the health care system. As Ontario Health Teams are formed — which will be an ongoing process over several years until provincial coverage is achieved — patients will be able to more easily access and navigate the system and be better supported as they transition from one health care provider or setting to another.

For each component of the model, Ontario Health Teams are expected to meet certain commitments and service delivery expectations for their population after their first year of operations through to maturity.

Patients of early Ontario Health Teams will begin to experience better coordinated, integrated health care that is easier to navigate. For providers, Ontario Health Teams foster local collaboration and enables greater communication and coordination. Providers will be supported to work as one coordinated team - focusing on patients and specific local needs, so people can more easily navigate the system and experience easy and coordinated transitions from one health care provider to another. These teams will have flexibility to redesign how they deliver care to meet the needs of their patients in the most effective way.

Teams selected to move forward as Ontario Health Team Candidates are required to have a confirmed commitment to put in place 24/7 coordination of care and system navigation services for targeted patients and providing navigation supports in place for some segments of the patients they are serving.

At maturity, Ontario Health Teams will have:

• The ability to provide patients with digital choices such as virtual care (e.g., telephone, email, virtual visits) and timely digital access to patient health records;
• The ability to communicate and share information across the network; and
• The ability to drive performance improvements within and across the network through clinical and data standardization, and advanced analytics and strong information management practices to enable population health management, quality improvement, and outcomes measurement.

No. Teams will determine for themselves how to self-organize and what governance structure(s) work best for them, their patients, and their communities. At maturity, Ontario Health Teams will work under a single accountability framework and an integrated funding envelope.

You can check our website for news and developments related to the RRDOHT. If you have questions or suggestions, you can send an email to info@rrdoht.ca.

For more information on OHTs, visit Ontario’s Ministry of Health website.