Chatham-Kent’s hospital has launched a new program to support patients transitioning home following their hospital stay.
The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance’s @ Home Program provides comprehensive discharge planning, direct in-home clinical care, and support for patients once they leave the hospital.
“This is going to help us get patients home sooner, get them into a home environment where they can heal much better after their stay at our hospital,” said CKHA President and CEO Adam Topp.
A patient navigator will work with patients and their families to create a personal care plan that provides medication management, follow-up appointments, and connects them with essential community resources.
The care team can include nurses, personal support workers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, social workers, and other professionals through a partnership with ParaMed Home Health Care.
“This is a brand new program, a program that we haven’t had before. So this is a great start for the hospital to provide home care, and I hope the program grows,” said Topp.
While the duration of the program differs from patient to patient, it can run from around eight to 16 weeks. Patients needing care beyond 16 weeks will be connected to ongoing home care services through Ontario Health at Home.
According to CKHA officials, the hospital currently operates 22 medical beds above its capacity, which is 40 per cent more medical patient days than CKHA is designed to support.
Topp said the CKHA @ Home Program will help alleviate these capacity issues.
“Patients don’t need to be in the hospital as long as they are. There are a lot of patients who would prefer to be at the right place at the right time,” he said. “If we can discharge people sooner, it’s a much better environment for people to recover at home.”
It’s estimated that the CKHA @ Home Program will support around 160 patients each year.
The program was made possible through an annual investment of $1.3 million from the Ontario government.
