Central Community Care Access Centre

Central CCAC was the consolidation of all or part of four pre-existing CCACs, all with unique processes and client service methods. The objective of the "Road to One" initiative was to understand the existing care processes and apply quality improvement concepts to optimize and harmonize how care would be delivered into the future. This would also ready the organization for implementing automation solutions such as CHRIS- the provincial case management application. 

The process improvements designed for the future state remove excess data entry and forms handling, reduced hand offs that waste time and added features of service that clients would value. Innovative ideas based on lean theory were deployed. An IT strategy was developed to support higher performing business processes. Central CCAC has seen a measurable reduction in wait times for assessment.  

Personal Support/ Home Support Agency

A company with just over 300 staff was struggling with a high number of staff re-scheduling events occurring on a daily basis. This was consuming the time of internal scheduling staff, and causing frustration among front line workers.

Doleweerd Consulting spent a couple days with the schedulers and staff, and documented precisely the root causes of the scheduling problems. Rapidly, we provided a diagnostic assessment of the key risk, process and technology issues in order to transform scheduling and improve the acceptance rates and timeliness of service delivery. 

Ontario Provincial Association/ Foundation

The question of how to reduce ER backups, ALC days and the corresponding care mismatch has been a primary focus in the Ontario health care system recently. Often missing in this discussion is the impact on the patient experience when going from hospital-to-"home" (i.e. long term care home, retirement home, home with home care, etc...).  

Doleweerd Consulting was hired to speak directly with patients and caregivers to understand what their perception of "value" is, and compare it with an in-depth process investigation of how service was actually delivered. South East Community Care Access Centre and Quinte Health Care- Trenton Memorial worked with Doleweerd Consulting to map all the steps and decisions that patients and their caregivers must take -- and all the interactions and arrangements with different service providers- as they prepare to leave hospital for home - wherever 'home' may be.

Working with our local project team, we found that in the move from hospital to home there were 69 handling steps, 36 forms, four (often long-distance) family trips to the hospital and 15 delays. Improvements included streamlining the placement appointment process for families and a move away from regional LTCH access policies that were ineffective.

While this multi-site project is ongoing in Toronto Central LHIN area, preliminary results show that changes in the process can help avoid many ER admissions entirely, that the manner in which information is presented often induces fear among patients and families, and that many of the regulatory structures and policies in place may actually prevent timely discharge from hospital.

North Simcoe Muskoka Local Health Integration Network

When the LHIN needed a fresh look at the problems associated with growing Alternate Level of Care (ALC) Days, Doleweerd Consulting helped. Using a process enterprise maturity model, the immediate requirements for improved flow from hospital were identified. A multi organizational steering committee vetted the recommendations that spanned process ownership, bed capacity and communications.

Therapy Services Provider

A provider of therapy services to children and adults in the GTA required assistance with their quality and performance management approach. Too many indicators with not enough meaning were causing frustration. With guidance to the the leadership, a renewed approach to quality management grounded in best practices led to ongoing significant business growth.