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.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced the province’s first OHTs in December 2020. The Durham OHT was among this group.
While the core Durham OHT partnership group is comprised of 17 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 Priorities
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:
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improve patient experience
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improve population health outcomes
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achieve better value
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improve front-line provider experience
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advance health equity
Ontario Health will do this through:
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translating policy direction provided by the Ministry of Health into strategic guidance for OHTs, and supporting teams in their implementation efforts
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Regional supports for OHTs include:
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coaching
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help to align and integrate their work with broad health system strategies and planning
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assistance with partner collaboration
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issues management and conflict resolution
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facilitating knowledge translation across teams
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strategic management of accountability agreements with OHTs
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providing oversight for OHTs performance and quality improvement
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coordinating communication and engagement with OHTs
You can watch the Minister’s Update: Accelerating Ontario Health Teams here!
Primary Care Networks, Engagement, & Leadership
Primary care engagement is foundational to successfully improving and integrating care. It is important OHTs organize and connect with primary care to advance population health through integrated and equitable approaches to care. The Durham OHT brings together an array of local providers, including family physicians, nurse practitioners, and others to build better connections, expertise, and knowledge to more effectively co-design system changes and improve outcomes for our population.
The Primary Care Network Durham (PCND) connects, integrates, and supports primary care providers across Durham Region to be part of decision-making and help improve the delivery and coordination of care for patients. As part of the Durham OHT, PCND has two core objectives:
- To organize the local primary care sector in OHT planning and provide a voice in OHT decision-making
- To serve as a vehicle to support OHTs in the implementation of local and provincial priorities
Over time, PCND will ensure that every family physician, nurse practitioner, and other primary care provider will have the opportunity to be involved in a PCN for the local primary care sector to have a collective voice at OHT decision-making tables. Joining PCND is voluntary, but strongly encouraged, as the Durham OHT works to connect primary care providers to information and clinical tools that are useful and supportive to providers in the network.
As PCND matures, it will play a growing role in shaping clinical priorities, with a broader focus on improving access and attachment to comprehensive primary care, implementing integrated chronic disease prevention and management strategies, and advancing additional local priorities with a focus on equity-deserving populations.
Durham Ontario Health Team at Home
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. As one of seven selected OHTs, the Durham OHT at Home program delivers an innovative care model designed to modernize home care and better support residents across Durham Region.
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 successfully launched January 2025 for residents of the Downtown Oshawa neighbourhood.
Integrated Clinical Pathways & Chronic Disease Prevention and Management
Across Ontario, OHTs have made tremendous progress ensuring OHTs are built to last and well positioned to deliver better patient care across the province. Standardized approaches are being developed province-wide based on lessons learned to date and expert advice. As OHTs continue to build their capacity, they have selected target populations based on local needs and focusing efforts where they know they can make the greatest difference by working better together.
To help teams deliver proactive, evidence-based care for patients with specific conditions, the Durham OHT is implementing integrated clinical pathways for people living with chronic conditions. These pathways are grounded in primary and community care with a strong focus on prevention and disease management. Durham OHT is participating in this province-wide effort, working alongside primary care, hospital, and home and community care partners to implement these pathways locally. When a hospital stay is needed, pathways will identify what is required to support a smooth transition back into the community and a supportive primary care environment. Along the way, patients will be supported by virtual and clinical tools to support care in the most appropriate setting.
As this work continues, the Durham OHT will keep building local partnerships and data capabilities to better coordinate and integrate services, with the ultimate goal of creating a seamless patient experience.
Digital and System Navigation Enablers
Digital health is a key enabler of a more connected and integrated health care system. OHTs play a critical role fostering local innovation and provincial digital advancement, offering a new way of organizing and delivering services in local communities to support integrated health care. Digital health services and tools, paired with a harmonized health information management plan, will support more seamless and efficient delivery of care.
From a digital first approach, the Durham OHT is increasing system integration and information sharing within OHTs and the broader health care system, so patients have more choices in how they engage with the healthcare system and receive care. For patients and caregivers, this means having more options in terms of how and when they navigate the system, access care, manage their health status, and view their personal health information. For providers, this means having access to the information they need, when they need it, and better channels for delivering services. For organizations, this means equipping teams with tools that allow them to focus their efforts on providing care directly to patients while minimizing time lost to inefficient and redundant reporting activities.
In an ideal state, OHTs will be able to leverage digital tools to better understand their attributed population and their performance in serving that population.
