Aging At Home Strategy

Ontario is investing $1.1 billion over four years in its Aging at Home Strategy.

The program provides a continuum of community-based services for seniors and their caregivers to allow them to stay healthy and live independently and with dignity in their homes.

It also aims to decrease the number of alternate level of care (ALC) patients in Ontario hospitals. ALC patients are individuals who are occupying acute care beds in hospitals, but would be better cared for in another setting -- whether it be their own homes or long-term care homes.

This year, Ontario is providing $330.6 million in funding for the Aging at Home strategy, a $143.4 million increase over last year. The money will help strengthen community support services, hospitals, Community Care Access Centres and long-term care homes. The funding will be rolled out in two waves to ensure that Ontario is effectively supporting its seniors and reducing the number of ALC patients in hospitals:

- $294.8 million will go toward Aging at Home projects targeted to the four priorities identified by the ER/ALC Expert Panel:

• More beds to help hospital patients transition to the community through restorative and     rehabilitative care

• Strategies to ensure patients receive high quality care inside and outside the hospital to avoid unnecessary readmissions

• Enhanced home care

• Nursing outreach teams for high-risk seniors living in long-term care homes and in the community.

- $35.8 million of the new funding will targeted to communities where further interventions are needed to decrease the number of patients waiting unnecessarily in hospital beds. This funding will be used to help patients transition to the community more quickly and take pressure off our hospitals and help to lower wait times.

2010/11 Funding by LHIN

Local Health Integration Network	Year 3 AAH Allocation
Erie St. Clair LHIN	$15,408,086
South West LHIN	$27,413,847
Waterloo Wellington LHIN	$18,718,537
Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN	$29,889,406
Central West LHIN	$10,836,962
Mississauga Halton LHIN	$29,951,344
Toronto Central LHIN	$24,241,025
Central LHIN	$52,936,046
Central East LHIN	$18,164,271
South East LHIN	$8,653,805
Champlain LHIN	$27,113,564
North Simcoe Muskoka LHIN	$11,634,784
North East LHIN	$16,789,561
North West LHIN	$3,031,065
TOTAL	$294,782,306

What is an Alternate Level of Care (ALC) patient and how do ALC patients impact ER wait times?

ALC patients are people in hospital beds who would be better cared for in an alternate setting, such as long-term care, rehab, or their own home. Having more home care and community services enables ALC patients to leave hospitals sooner, making more beds available to ER patients who are waiting to be admitted to hospital.

How does the Aging at Home strategy help reduce ER wait times?

Our ER wait times strategy committed to reducing the time that patients wait from the moment they arrive at the ER to when they leave.

A small number of patients, approximately ten per cent, are admitted to the hospital for further tests and procedures. In order to reduce their time waiting for a bed, we need to decrease the number of patients that are waiting for discharge home with supports or space in a long-term care home. Our Aging at Home and ALC strategies help to ensure that patients can transition out of the hospital safely to make room for ER patients waiting to be admitted.