Giving you access to the right service by the right provider at the right time
Family Health Teams are committed to meeting the Ontario government’s strategy to improve access to comprehensive primary health care for Ontarians by:
- Reducing the number of unattached patients in Ontario;
- Keeping Ontarians healthy;
- Reducing hospital wait times; and
- Providing better access to primary health care services.
The Role of Family Health Teams:
- Provide increased access to family health care to patients without a family health care provider (e.g. unattached patients);
- Provide comprehensive family health care services through an interdisciplinary team of family physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses and a range of other health care professionals, each working within their scopes of practice;
- Serve as a central catalyst for the development of new, comprehensive community-based chronic disease management and self-care programs;
- Emphasize health promotion, illness prevention and early detection/diagnosis;
- Provide system navigation and care coordination, linking patients to other parts of the health care system such as acute care, long-term care, public health, mental health, addictions, and community programs and services;
- Provide patient-centred care where the patient is a key member of the team and uses information and support to make informed decisions on how to manage his/her self-care needs;
- Link with other health care organizations at the community level and, in general, be adapted to the needs of the specific community; and
- Use information technology as the backbone of system integration, linking patient records across different health care settings and giving providers timely access to test results and other important data.
