Bulletin: CorHealth Ontario to Mark First National Heart Failure (HF) Awareness Week with Release of Newly Developed Integrated Heart Failure Care (IHFC) Resources

Key Learnings from the Integrating Heart Failure Care Initiative (IHFCI) to Improve Patient Care

PUBLISHED BY: CORHEALTH ONTARIO

DATE ISSUED: MAY 2, 2019

CorHealth Ontario has translated the experiences gained from the Integrating Heart Failure Care Initiative (IHFCI) into resources that begin to integrate care more broadly – an approach that can be expanded beyond cardiac disease into other chronic illnesses and population health management overall. For Canada’s inaugural Heart Failure Awareness Week (May 6-12), CorHealth Ontario will be launching the “Roadmap for Improving Integrated Heart Failure Care in Ontario” and supporting resources online, providing guidance and critical considerations to care providers across Ontario who are also interested in better heart failure care and outcomes for their patients.

CorHealth Ontario, in partnership with Health Quality Ontario and three (3) Early Adopter Teams, began the Integrating Heart Failure Care Initiative (IHFCI) in 2017, a model that integrates heart failure care delivery with quality standards for a localized population of persons suffering from heart failure. The Provincial Heart Failure Roadmap Task Group, co-chaired by Mr. Ted Alexander, Vice-President of Partnerships and Clinical Innovation at the eHealth Centre of Excellence, and Ms. Debbie Korzeniowski, Executive Director of Prince Edward Family Health Team, emphasizes the importance of integrated care across all care levels. The use of the integrated model is essential to advancing patient care by improving access to evidence-based care and patient experience – with particular focus on seamless transitions in care, including between specialty and primary care providers or between hospital and home.

QUICK FACTS

  • Heart failure is associated with high costs and frequent use of health care resources. The Heart and Stroke Foundation estimates that heart failure costs the Canadian health care system $2.8 billion per year (Heart and Stroke Foundation, 2016).
  • Heart failure is one of the five leading causes of hospitalization and 30-day readmissions, and the most common cause of hospitalization for people over age 65 (Health Quality Ontario, 2019).
  • Despite the presence of heart failure clinical guidelines, the health care system needs to support implementation of recommendations through improved organization and integration of care.
  • National guidelines recommend that care for patients with heart failure be organized within an integrated system of health care delivery where patient information and care plans are accessible to collaborating practitioners across the continuum of care.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Emma Jowett

Sr. Strategist, Communications and Stakeholder Relations

CorHealth Ontario

emma.jowett@corhealthontario.ca

647-264-1179