Frequently asked questions

The Ontario Government, through the Ministry of Health, introduced Ontario Health Teams (OHTs) to provide a new way of organizing and delivering care that is more connected to patients in their local communities.

Under OHTs, health care providers (including hospitals, doctors and home and community care providers) work as one coordinated team—no matter where they provide care.

Ontario’s health care system is complex, and many patients, families, caregivers and providers find it confusing, inconvenient and challenging to navigate.

In particular, patients experience gaps in care as they transition from one provider to the next. They wait too long for care and find that they have to repeat their health history and fill out duplicate forms when moving from one level of care to the next.

OHTs serve as a one-stop shop where every entry point leads to care that is seamlessly co-ordinated. People are supported through their health care journey with one patient record and one care plan following wherever they receive care.

Health care providers in these collaborative partnerships have simplified access to more information, resources and services to better connect their patients to care.

Learn more on the Government of Ontario’s website.

No. OHTs will determine for themselves how to self-organize and what governance structure(s) work best for them, their patients and their communities. At maturity, OHTs will work under a single accountability framework and an integrated funding envelope.

At maturity, OHTs will have:

• The ability to provide patients with digital choices such as virtual care (e.g., telephone, email, virtual visits) and timely digital access to patient health records.
• The ability to communicate and share information across the network.
• The ability to drive performance improvements within and across the network through clinical and data standardization, and advanced analytics and strong information management practices to enable population health management, quality improvement and outcomes measurement.

The Government of Ontario introduced OHTs as a new model to integrate care delivery and funding. This will enable patients, families, communities, providers and system leaders to better work together, innovate and build on what is best in Ontario’s health care system. The goal is to provide better, more connected care across the province.

Ontarians should expect a health care system that:

• Is designed to ensure patients experience seamless transitions across different care providers and settings.
• Promotes the active involvement and participation of primary care providers throughout a person’s care journey.
• Takes care of a person’s complete physical and mental health needs, and not just one condition at a time.
• Encourages and enables healthy behaviours, activities and self-care that promote physical and mental health and well-being.
• Is interconnected, so that patients don’t have to repeat their health history or take the same test multiple times for different providers.
• Is easy to access and provides navigation when patients, families and caregivers have questions or need assistance.
• Provides the appropriate level of care in the appropriate setting, at the right time.
• Achieves better value by delivering better quality for the same or lower cost.
• Is built on collaboration, partnership, trust, communication and mutual respect between patients, families, caregivers, providers and communities.

These are the hallmarks of a system that is connected.

Learn more on the Government of Ontario’s website.

The OHT model will encourage providers to improve the health of an entire population, reducing disparities among different population groups.

As part of this approach, OHTs will be enabled to locally redesign care in ways that best meet the needs of the diverse communities they serve.

This includes creating opportunities to improve care for Indigenous populations, Francophones and other population groups in Ontario which may have distinct health service needs, such as inner-city urban areas and northern and rural communities.

For a list of our current partners, please visit our partners page.

The OHT model does not interfere with patients’ choice of health care providers or disrupt the continuity of any patient’s care with their current health care providers. Patients will continue to access care from their existing care providers and will always be able to choose who they access care from.

Improvements in integrated care through OHTs will fundamentally change how patients, families and caregivers experience the health care system.

OHTs were introduced to help patients more easily access and navigate the system and be better supported as they transition from one health care provider or setting to another.

OHTs are expected to meet certain commitments and service delivery expectations for their population after their first year of operations through to maturity.

The Patient, Family and Caregiver Declaration of Values for Ontario outlines some of the fundamental principles and values that will guide the culture of OHTs.

OHTs bring together local health care and social service providers as one team to better organize and deliver services, making it easier for patients to get care. Part of this work involves defining system navigation pathways and providing supports to help patients find and access services in their local community, including navigation in French for Francophone patients.

For providers, Ontario Health Teams foster local collaboration and enables greater communication and coordination. Providers will be supported to work as one co-ordinated team—focusing on patients and specific local needs, so people can more easily navigate the system and experience easy and co-ordinated transitions from one health care provider to another.

These teams will have the flexibility to redesign how they deliver care to meet the needs of their patients in the most effective way.

There are many benefits to joining the OHT as a provider, including:

• Work experience: OHTs will help improve your work experience.
• Patient care: OHTs will help you deliver enhanced patient care.
• Relationship building: OHTs will help you develop stronger relationships.
• Quality control: OHTs will allow you to influence how care is delivered in your region.
• Opportunity to grow: OHTs will give you more opportunities for learning and leadership development.

Please visit our providers information page to learn more.

If you have questions about Ontario Health Teams, please email ontariohealthteams@ontario.ca.