By: Laura Zilke, Manager, Communications & Public Affairs, Halton Healthcare, and Angela Farace, Coordinator, Communications & Public Affairs, Halton Healthcare
For the past decade, the Mississauga Halton Central Intake Program has provided seamless, centralized access to care for patients – ultimately taking the confusion out of navigating the health system.
The Mississauga Halton Central Intake Program (MHCIP), managed by Halton Healthcare, launched in 2013 to streamline access to care in the region. The program is the single point of contact for coordinating referrals to the right care, in the right place and at the right time, with integrated communication between all parties, including primary care providers, hospital and community service providers, patients and families. It supports referral management, service navigation, waitlist support and system planning and data collection.
The MHCIP team connects patients easily and in a timely manner with healthcare and service providers. Dr. Alice Cheng, an endocrinologist, from Trillium Health Partners, says, "The Central Intake Program has made referral to diabetes education so much simpler for me and my staff. One form, one number - total confidence". The process has been simplified for physicians and staff, and patients alike, as one patient said, “I was really pleased with the Central Intake Program that helped me understand what service options are available to me to manage my diabetes.”
“Our goal is to increase awareness and access to services through a simplified single access point for healthcare providers and patients,” explains Nala Sriharan, Manager of the Central Intake Program. “This helps patients access the support they require simply and quickly. By having a coordinated access service in the region, we are able to direct referrals based on patient choice and wait times for specific services. When one service provider is experiencing capacity issues, it can help load balance by sending referrals to another service provider with capacity. Essentially the program acts as traffic control for the service providers based on demand and capacity.”
From inception to today, the MHCIP has grown from coordinating access to one clinical service to being the single point of access for referrals to seven services including:
- Diabetes Education Programs
- Addiction & Mental Health Services (one-Link)
- Diabetes Foot Care Services
- Fecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) Colonoscopy
- Musculoskeletal Care (Hip & Knee Rapid Access Clinic, Low Back Rapid Access Clinic, Shoulder Rapid Access Clinic)
At the outset of the MHCIP in 2013, Diabetes Education Services was the inaugural referral pathway and was supported by three staff members. During the first year, the team processed 1,945 referrals from more than 700 referral sources. Fast forward ten years and the MHCIP now has seven referral pathways, 31 staff members, 3000+ referral sources and a remarkable 225,000 referrals have been processed to date! On average, 85 percent of the referrals are processed within 48 hours.
Over the last decade, the Central Intake Program has been recognized at a provincial level for its great success in connecting patients to seamless and centralized access to care.
“The Mississauga Halton Central Intake Program” is doing a remarkable job at keeping our patients safe by having access to care and ensuring their care needs are being met,” exclaims Carole Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. “Halton Healthcare and the MHCIP team is proving what leadership in healthcare looks like and the community is a benefactor of how responsive they are. Congratulations to the whole team for the collaboration and success over the last ten years!”