South East Regional Palliative Care Network Work
Working together with regional stakeholders, the Ontario Palliative Care Network (OPCN) and the Ministry to improve access to high-quality hospice palliative care in the South East.
Regional Engagement and Feedback
Adopting a quality improvement approach, each of the priority teams have focused on improvement initiatives in the five identified regional priorities. The priority areas listed below are themes to guide the work that have been undertaken by priority teams who then refined and defined the scope of the project.
Project themes are closely aligned with Health Quality Ontario’s Quality Standard for Palliative Care released in the spring of 2018 and the OPCN's Health Services Delivery Framework released in the spring of 2019.
The Ontario Palliative Care Network Action Plan 1: 2017 – 2020 outlines how we will work together to ensure that quality hospice palliative care services are readily available and easy to access for people with life-limiting illness and their loved ones. To help regional network partners communicate the regional work and aligned expectations provincially there is a presentation that has been created for your use at meetings. Presentation: OPCN Action Plan - South East RPCN Work Plan
1. Standardizing the process of care delivery, with a focus on early identification for palliative care
The transition from curative treatment to a palliative approach and recognition of end of life requires a shift in thinking for patients, their caregivers/ families as well as health care providers. We will introduce standardized tools and approaches to identify and engage patients and caregivers for important conversations in the last year of life.
- Executive Sponsor: Onalee Randell
- Team Lead: Ruth Dimopoulos
2. Better communication within the circle of care
Patients and their families/caregivers requiring a palliative approach to care, as part of the circle of care, will experience improvements in the receipt of timely, accurate, and relevant information at end of life. Providers will be knowledgeable about patients’ needs and work together to communicate changes in patient need quickly and effectively to provide timely care.
- Executive Sponsor: Janet Webb
- Team Lead: Alicia McCallum
3. Access to 24/7 palliative care at home
Patients and their families/caregivers requiring a palliative approach to care will experience improvement in support and access to 24/7 services at home.
- Executive Sponsor: Wendy Parker
- Team Lead: Mary Woodman
4. Building capacity and enhancing care in the hospice residence setting
Patients and their families/caregivers requiring a palliative approach to care, if desired, will have access to a hospice residence at end-of-life and receive quality care in the hospice setting in accordance with provincial standards.
- Executive Sponsor: Allen Prowse
- Team Lead: Maggie George
5. Competency building to deliver high-quality palliative care.
Patients and their families/caregivers requiring a palliative care approach based on their illness and needs can anticipate increased access to high quality palliative care from primary health care providers.
Process:
Each of the Priority Teams will progress through the phases of a quality improvement project framework and develop a project charter specifying the project aim statement, problem statement, change ideas, and measurement of improvement. The teams will carry out experience based design with patients and caregivers to understand what the problems are and define the approaches taken to address those problems.
Philosophy:
Hospice palliative care is a philosophy of care that aims to relieve suffering and improve the quality of both living and dying. It strives to help individuals, their families, and their caregivers. For this reason, the South East LHIN recognizes that a palliative approach to care is inclusive of those the patient identifies with as family and/or caregiver.
Scope:
Following the approach taken by OPCN in response to the recommendation in the Declaration document to first focus on those at end-of-life, the South East RPCN has asked that each team scope their projects initially to the patient population anticipated to be in their last year of life, inclusive of those at end-of life.