Rehab workers and physiotherapists in the region will hope to bring more at-home care to their patients in the coming years.
That's one of the goals of the Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network's (LHIN) Rehab Strategic Plan, which also looks to address the needs of medically-complex seniors. The region's rehab team has been working to improve services particularly for patients with stroke and hip fracture issues.
The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance in particular has been reaching, or exceeding provincial benchmarks when it comes to moving patients through the process in a timely manner. Last year, 98% of patients with hip fractures received surgery within 48 hours. The average length of stay for stroke patients in acute care came in at just over five days.
"The hospital staff and directors had made rehabilitation a priority," says LHIN Rehabilitation Lead Helen Johnson. "They had really set the model and example of what rehabilitation can do."
The LHIN has been measuring wait times for surgery and "alternative levels of care" stays for patients working through rehab. Hospitals in the Windsor and Sarnia area have also been approaching expectations set out by the Ontario government.
Going forward the LHIN's rehab team will look to improve programming at patients' homes, with an emphasis on medically-complex elderly residents. Johnson adds they hope to predict and address issues sooner, so hospital stays aren't necessary.
"If [patients] aren't remembering well, they're maybe not cooking well and shopping. Then they lose weight, they get weak, and they fall," says Johnson. "That's what we call the cascade to dependency."