On February 26, 2019, Bill 74: The People's Health Care Act, 2019 ("Bill 74") was introduced, creating the Connecting Care Act, 2019. Bill 74 received royal assent on April 18, 2019, and most sections came into force on June 6, 2019. Since the introduction of Bill 74, information about the province's new single health agency, Ontario Health, as well as the process for designating integrated care delivery systems, called Ontario Health Teams ("OHTs"), has regularly flowed through provincial announcements and publications. At this stage, Ontario Health has been formed and its board has been appointed[1].
On May 15, 2019, all providers and organizations interested in becoming OHTs were invited to complete and submit self-assessment forms. To the surprise of many, more than 150 self-assessment submissions were received. Of the 150 self-assessment submissions:
- 31 teams were invited to complete a full application (the "Full Application");
- 41 teams were designated as "in development" and are working towards submitting a Full Application;
- 9 teams were designated as "Innovative Models"; and
The deadline to submit a Full Application was October 10, 2019. The 31 teams that were invited to submit a Full Application are listed below:
| Muskoka and Area OHT | ESO Ottawa- Est/ Ottawa East OHT |
| Connected Care Halton OHT | Durham OHT |
| West York OHT | Algoma OHT |
| Southlake Community OHT | North Toronto OHT |
| Couchiching OHT | East Toronto Health Partners |
While we note that the publicly available information with respect to some of the 31 teams is currently incomplete, we have gathered the data outlined below based on information that is publically available at this time.
Number of Members
As depicted in the graph below, the sizes of the 31 teams invited to submit a Full Application are quite varied.
Interestingly, a majority of the 31 teams consist of between 10 and 20 members (i.e. 52%). It is of note that 14% of teams have less than 10 members, while 10% of teams have more than 45 members. We found that the smallest team has 5 members, while the largest team has over 60 members.
Composition of Members
We know that the Ministry of Health's emphasis has recently been on primary care, acute care, and home and community care. Therefore, it is not surprising that we found that 100% of teams invited to submit a Full Application have a hospital member, 100% have a primary care provider member and 96% have a home care provider member.
Interestingly, 33% of the 31 teams have a municipality or city as a member.
The graph below depicts the composition of the 31 teams for which membership information is publically available at this time.
Geography
The map below demonstrates the concentration of the teams that applied to become an OHT, and particularly of the 31 teams invited to submit a Full Application, in the province.[3] The vast majority of the 31 teams are located in southern Ontario.
Innovative Models
In addition to the 31 teams invited to submit a Full Application, 9 teams have been designated as Innovative Models, which are listed below:
While the majority of teams were established based on geography, each Innovative Model appears to be based on a specific illness and/or a certain patient population. The breakdown of the Innovative Models according to the specific illness or patient population they target is as follows:
Looking Ahead
The OHT candidates will be announced this fall. We await the announcement of the candidates and continue to watch for developments with respect to the designation of OHTs.
The deadline for the second round of OHT self-assessments is December 4, 2019.
[1] See Fasken's bulletin, Ontario's Proposed Super-Agency: The Creation of Ontario Health Under Bill 74, for additional information about the formation of Ontario Health.
[2] See Fasken's bulletin, Designation Process for Ontario Health Teams, for additional information about the designation process for OHTs.
[3] This map was made by the Ontario Medical Association and can be accessed at the following link: https://public.tableau.com/profile/oma.era#!/vizhome/OHTListv1/SouthernOntario?publish=yes
