About Us

Our Story

The Durham Ontario Health Team (OHT) is a collaborative group of organizations and patient, family and care partner advisors working in partnership to improve access and delivery of coordinated health services. The group is comprised of partners from across the care continuum, including primary care providers, hospitals, mental health and addiction services, social support services, home and community care support services and long-term care.
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The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced the province’s first OHTs in December 2020. The Durham OHT was among this group.
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While the core Durham OHT partnership group is comprised of 18 signatory organizations, there is broad support from more than 70 health care partners across Durham Region, representing various organizations in the health, social, education, and private sectors.

Our Projects

Home Care Modernization Leading Project

As part of the province’s comprehensive plan to build healthier communities and end hallway health care, Ontario is modernizing the delivery of home and community care services. In the coming months, Home and Community Care, services will transition into Ontario Health Teams, to reflect their singular mandate of delivering home and community care.

To pilot this model of change the province has selected 7 Ontario Health Teams to pilot this innovative model of care, the initiative is commonly referred to as the “Leading Project” (LPs). The 7 LPs are working in close partnership with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Ontario Health (OH) to plan and implement this advanced model of providing client care, while considering the opportunity a chance to test and evaluate OHT-led home care models.

The Durham OHT has worked closely with system partners and community service sector organizations along with the other six LP OHTs to develop plans for implementation, governance, and accountability. The leading project will aim to launch in Q3 of 2024-25 with an initial focus on the residents of the Downtown Oshawa area. This launch will be dependent on key milestones being achieved through the summer months. As the project progresses and evolves additional pockets within the Oshawa neighbourhood will be included.

The focus at this time remains, continued implementation of the One Care Team partnership, implementation and application of identified continuous quality and safety improvement opportunities, phased expansion for long-term sustainability of the leading project. Work is well underway with Health System Performance Network (HSPN) partners to ensure patient and provider experience is at the forefront of the LPs.

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Initial 12 Ontario Health Teams Accelerating Work

With support from the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health, the Durham OHT is proud to be part of the 12 OHTs chosen to accelerate our work to deliver home care in their local communities starting in 2025. To start, we are focusing on seamlessly transitioning people with chronic disease through their primary care, hospital, and home and community care needs.

The Durham OHT with the 11 other accelerated OHTs will share our lessons learned to help support all other OHTs as we prepare for the next phase of implementation. 

Ontario Health’s Role in Supporting Ontario Health Teams 

Ontario Health will work with the Ministry of Health and OHTs to: 

  • improve patient experience 

  • improve population health outcomes 

  • achieve better value 

  • improve front-line provider experience 

  • advance health equity 

Ontario Health will do this through: 

  • translating policy direction provided by the Ministry of Health into strategic guidance for OHTs, and supporting teams in their implementation efforts

  • Regional supports for OHTs include: 

    • coaching 

    • help to align and integrate their work with broad health system strategies and planning 

    • assistance with partner collaboration 

    • issues management and conflict resolution 

    • facilitating knowledge translation across teams 

  • strategic management of accountability agreements with OHTs 

  • providing oversight for OHTs performance and quality improvement 

  • coordinating communication and engagement with OHTs

You can watch the Minister’s Update: Accelerating Ontario Health Teams here!

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