A recent report from Ontario's Auditor General was highly critical of the way home care is being delivered in this province.
And Huron-Perth Healthcare Alliance C-E-O Andrew Williams agrees that the shift in focus from institutional care to home or community care hasn't met expectations.
Williams explains one of the problems in the discrepancy between compensation for hospital or institutional health care providers and those working in the community.
He points out if the playing field was levelled there would be more people available to provide care in the home.
Williams adds education is another area that can be improved so that more people know what's available.
He points out people have a comfort level about being in a hospital because they know someone is there for them around the clock .
However, he says people often don't realize the care they get in their home is as good or sometimes better because they're in their own home.
Williams adds there has to be more consistency across the system.
Williams says a program that has worked very well within the Alliance communities is called Home First where instead of waiting in hospitals for long-term home care the patients are transitioned to their homes and they wait there for long-term care.
Williams says the benefits of that are significant and in fact a large number of those patients end up not even needing long-term care.