Don Buchanan says as health-care providers in Ontario move towards the new allocation model under the Local Health Integration Networks (LHIN), it’s going to be necessary for workers and organizations to understand where they can realize process efficiencies.
As co-ordinator of the Child and Youth Health Partnership at McMaster University, Buchanan is acting on his own advice and has engaged the Waterloo Wellington and Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHINs in discussions centered on making children’s health a priority in the region.
“We bring some expertise in child health to the picture. The LHINs bring some expertise in developing an integrated network of services and that’s really the goal that both of us have,” Buchanan says.
“Instead of having eight or 10 different institutions who each plan for child health in their community, we really need to think about how we weave those together into an integrated inter-dependant network,” he says.
The goal is to inventory inpatient and outpatient pediatric services available in both LHINs, compile a summary of service gaps and develop a comprehensive plan for an integrated health system for children and youth.
“One of the very first things we’re going to look at is what is the current utilization and what is the demand for services across the whole region,” Buchanan says. “Through that data-analysis, the goal is to identify what works and what doesn’t in order to put best practices in place moving forward.”
“It’s this examination of data and the ability to look at your own performance in relation to your peer’s performance that’s going to be much more important as we work to integrate the system.”
Because every organization has its strengths and weaknesses, Buchanan says it’s important for professionals to share knowledge and best practices.
“If you’re doing better than most of your peers, then you’ll be able to continue doing that service and continue to afford to do it,” he says.
“If you’re in a position where everybody else is providing this service more efficiently and effectively than you are, then I think the LHINs are going to start to question why they’re continuing to support you in providing that service when there are others that are doing a better job at it.”
Moving forward, an outline of the planning process is expected to be ready by the end of October with the full plan completed by April 2008.