Operational Direction: Rehabilitation and Complex Continuing Care Capacity and Flow

Ensuring patients across Ontario receive the right care in the right place at the right time is a key priority for our health system. Thank you to you and your teams for the work you do every day in support of this goal.

Currently in Ontario, there are more than 4,500 patients designated as requiring an alternate level of care (ALC) in acute care and rehabilitation/complex continuing care (CCC) hospitals, with approximately 25% of patients in acute care waiting for rehabilitation and CCC. As we look ahead to the fall/winter and the accompanying resurgence of respiratory viruses, we anticipate capacity pressures across the health system. Given this context, it is increasingly important to optimize rehabilitation and CCC capacity to support ALC reduction efforts and improve patient access to care.

Acknowledging implementation of the Operational Guidance may be nuanced depending on geography and in rural and remote locations, Ontario Health remains committed to working with system partners to improve access, occupancy, throughput, and flow in all sectors across the province. A province-wide target of reducing ALC volumes by 10% per year over the next 3 years has been set to help concentrate our collective efforts to improve access to care.

To support target achievement, improved utilization, patient flow, and overall system capacity, Ontario Health is issuing the following direction and guidance (below) to hospitals and health service providers that operate rehabilitation and CCC beds as a free-standing facility or integrated within an acute care facility:

1. All rehab and CCC hospitals will work towards a target occupancy rate of >95%
2. All hospitals will work towards achieving ALC throughput targets of >1
3. All hospitals will work to implement the actions and approaches outlined in the attached Operational Guidance that apply to them, recognizing rural and northern constraints
4. All hospitals will work with their Ontario Health region on the above noted improvement efforts

Your Ontario Health regional team will continue to work closely with you on local capacity, access and flow efforts and will follow up with organizations shortly to support implementation efforts over the summer.

Thank you for all that you are doing to provide care for the people of Ontario.

To get the full details, download the PDF.