March2023-Digital Health Plan
Digital Health Plan
 |
Amy Timmons
Deputy Chief Financial Officer |
Use data analytics and technology to optimize
operations and care delivery
The digital landscape of Ontario’s health care system has evolved rapidly in recent years and we’ve seen significant attention on the potential of data to help us work more effectively and efficiently in our sector, and the possibilities for digital technologies to enable us to do more with the resources we have.
In the coming years, we will work to build on and expand the digital resources, structures, and processes, as well as the knowledge and skills, that will enable us to communicate and engage more effectively with each other and draw meaningful insights from real-time information to make evidence-informed decisions. These intentions align with the emerging priorities of the Ontario Health Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence, which includes a data and digital focus to advance evidence-based service planning, data-driven investments, monitoring of patient/client and system outcomes, performance management, and transparency and accountability.
The Digital Health Enabling Plan will enable the organization to deliver high-quality care driven by evidence and data and supported by technology and innovations where appropriate.
We will combine our skills and expertise as a mental health, addictions, and specialized geriatric services provider with the application of high-quality data to evolve into a learning health system that enables integrated care and quality improvement through an agile and iterative process. By focusing on how data is collected, analyzed, and applied, we will lay the foundation for a learning organization that implements evidence-based process improvements to support the achievement of excellence in mental health and addictions and specialized geriatric services.
In the execution of this plan, Waypoint must focus on the collection of meaningful, high-quality data and promote a people-powered culture that is rooted in evidence-based decision-making. A heightened focus on quality data and predictive analytics will serve as a potential differentiator for the organization, creating an opportunity to support innovative research and promote best practices on a local, regional, provincial, and national scale.
We will optimize and integrate digital and data solutions. Before we consider acquiring new solutions and integrating new technologies, we must ensure we have a solid foundation to build from, starting with understanding and aligning what we currently have, while identifying gaps that can guide our future work.
We will work collaboratively with partners to become the data and digital backbone for mental health and addictions and specialized geriatric services in the region. As we work toward more integrated care regionally and provincially, digital capabilities and alignment will be critical.
We will improve patient/client access to both their health information and care through patient/client-facing solutions, being thoughtful and intentional in how we advance this area. We serve a diverse community and some of the province’s most disadvantaged individuals. We will maintain an equity, diversity, and inclusion lens in this work, ensuring that equitable patient/client outcomes continue to be paramount.
Rather than seeking short-term technological solutions, our digital health strategy focuses on refining our workflows and processes in the context of both our operations and care delivery. This supports organizational readiness to embrace novel approaches to serving our patients/clients, taking a thoughtful approach to identifying how digital tools, technologies, and practices will move us forward in the present and prepare us for the future, with a particular focus on enhancing the experiences of our patients/clients and families, staff, partners, and the broader community.
To read more about our Enabling Plans, please click here.