Pay for Results Program

Ontario's Pay for Results Program helps hospitals meet specific emergency room (ER) wait time reduction targets.

Over the last two years it has helped participating hospitals lower overall wait times by 4.7 hours (28%) for patients who require complex medical care or admission to hospital, and by 1.4 hours (22%) for patients with minor conditions.

This year, the program is being expanded to include 71 of the province's high-volume -- or most in-demand -- hospitals. These hospitals will use the funding provided to ensure they treat more patients within the targets.

Hospitals across the province will receive $100 million in funding as follows:

• $60 million will be distributed among all hospitals immediately, to help them fund projects aimed at decreasing overall ER wait times and lowering the time patients wait for an initial assessment. Hospitals will use the funding to do things like:

·     expand staffing as part of emergency department teams and reorganize how these teams interact to encourage more collaboration

·     renovating an emergency room to improve patient flow

• A $40 million "incentive" fund to reward qualifying hospitals for meaningful ER wait time improvements.

Over the last two years, hospitals have managed to make some impressive overall wait time reductions through the Pay for Results Program. For example:

-     St. Michael's Hospital lowered ER wait times by 16.7 hours (61%) for patients who require complex medical care or admission to hospital, and by 4.6 hours (45%) for patients with minor conditions

-      Toronto General Hospital (University Health Network) lowered ER wait times by 23.1  hours (69%) for patients who require complex medical care or admission to hospital, and by 2.8 hours (38%) for patients with minor conditions.

This year, funding for the Pay for Results program will be distributed to Ontario's Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) as follows:

Local Health Integration Network	2010/11 Funds
ERIE ST. CLAIR	$4,424,500
SOUTH WEST	$3,652,600
WATERLOO WELLINGTON	$3,258,000
HAMILTON NIAGARA HALDIMAND BRANT	$5,310,700
CENTRAL WEST	$3,396,600
MISSISSAUGA HALTON	$4,320,500
TORONTO CENTRAL	$6,529,900
CENTRAL	$6,108,900
CENTRAL EAST	$7,377,500
SOUTH EAST	$1,248,000
CHAMPLAIN	$5,839,600
NORTH SIMCOE MUSKOKA	$2,811,300
NORTH EAST	$3,580,600
NORTH WEST	$1,932,000
TOTAL	$59,790,700

 

 Measuring ER Wait Times

ER Wait Times means the total time that someone who visits an ER looking for immediate, unscheduled care spends in the ER. "Total Time Spent in the ER" is the maximum amount of time 9 out of 10 patients spend in an ER receiving care or waiting for admission to a hospital bed. The measurement of wait time:

• Starts when a patient registers or is triaged ("triage" is the process for deciding which ER patients need or are likely to benefit from immediate treatment)
• Ends when the patient is discharged from the ER or is admitted to a hospital bed.

During the time that a patient is in the ER, doctors and nurses may be treating the patient's condition or ordering tests and waiting for test results so they can decide on the best course of treatment.