Ontario Health Teams are made up of providers and organizations including:
- primary care
- hospitals
- home and community care
- mental health and addictions services
- long-term care
Over time, they will work together to make it easier for patients to move from one provider to another, with one patient record and one care plan shared between providers.
The Ministry of Health has approved 58 Ontario Health Teams across the province through a standardized intake and assessment process.
Ontario Health Teams play an important role in mobilizing their partners to respond to local, regional and provincial priorities. They first demonstrated their ability to bring partners together around shared priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. This role continues to be important to deal with many system challenges across the province. Examples include Alternate Level of Care, and the expected surge in respiratory illness in the fall.
Initial 12 Ontario Health Teams Accelerating Work
With support from the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health, 12 OHTs have been chosen to accelerate their work to deliver home care in their local communities starting in 2025. To start, these teams are focusing on seamlessly transitioning people with chronic disease through their primary care, hospital, and home and community care needs.
The teams will share the lessons they learn to support all OHTs as they prepare for the next phase of implementation. Their experiences will contribute to the processes, guidance and templates that other teams will follow.
These 12 Ontario Health Teams are:
- All Nations Health Partners Ontario Health Team, serving Kenora and Sioux-Narrows-Nestor Falls
- Burlington Ontario Health Team, serving Burlington and surrounding areas
- Couchiching Ontario Health Team, serving Orillia and area
- Durham Ontario Health Team, serving Durham region
- East Toronto Health Partners Ontario Health Team, serving East Toronto area
- Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Ontario Health Team, serving Frontenac, Lennox and Addington region, including Kingston, Greater Napanee and surrounding rural communities
- Greater Hamilton Health Network Ontario Health Team, serving Hamilton area
- Middlesex London Ontario Health Team, serving Middlesex County and London
- Mississauga Ontario Health Team, serving Mississauga area
- Nipissing Wellness Ontario Health Team, serving Nipissing and East Parry Sound
- Noojmawing Sookatagaing Ontario Health Team, serving the City and District of Thunder Bay
- North York Toronto Health Partners Ontario Health Team, serving North York, Thornhill and Markham
Our Role in Supporting Ontario Health Teams
We work with the Ministry of Health and OHTs to:
- improve patient experience
- improve population health outcomes
- achieve better value
- improve front-line provider experience
- advance health equity
We do this through:
- translating policy direction provided by the Ministry of Health into strategic guidance for OHTs, and supporting teams in their implementation efforts
- Regional supports for OHTs that include:
- coaching
- help to align and integrate their work with broad health system strategies and planning
- assistance with partner collaboration
- issues management and conflict resolution
- facilitating knowledge translation across teams
- strategic management of accountability agreements with OHTs
- providing oversight for OHTs performance and quality improvement
- coordinating communication and engagement with OHTs