Windsor-Essex has been invited by the Ministry of Health to complete a full application to become an Ontario Health Team.
Back in February, as part of health care restructuring, the province announced it was going to phase out the Local Health Integration Networks (LHIN) and establish local Ontario Health Teams.
The teams would be fiscally responsible for health care services and providers.
All three hospitals in Windsor-Essex expressed interest in collaborating under the program with the goal to connect the regions health care system for all 400,000 residents of Essex County.
Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare led the coalition when Windsor-Essex joined more than 40 organizations in applying last year.
Hospital President and CEO Janice Kaffer says the invitation comes with some new tools.
"A lot more data and information about our community that we haven't been able to receive at this point in time that will help us to some of the planning we need to do to significantly improve the health and wellbeing of our community," she says.
Kaffer says the COVID-19 pandemic has given the team an additional focus for its application.
"All of us have been thinking about this through all of the work we've been doing in responding to the pandemic," she says. "What are some of the lessons we can take from this into the next phase of our work together on the health team."
According to Kaffer, the team has already identified two areas of focus.
"What are some of the ways in which we can continue to improve the patient experience through technology and digital health and we have a lot of work to do in engaging our family practice physicians across Windsor-Essex," she says.
It’s expected consultations will be a part of this phase of the application process, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, Kaffer says there's no set time frame on when they will begin.
— With files form AM800's Rob Hindi