Modernizing Ontario’s Healthcare

The Ontario government is working to improve healthcare through increased connectivity and patient-centered care. Initiatives include integrating digital health tools, enhancing primary care access, and expanding community-based health services. These changes aim to reduce wait times, streamline care delivery, and better coordinate resources across the province.

Strengthening Governance and Transparency

  • Creating a transparency framework for staffing agencies that operate in the hospital, long-term care and community health sectors, to disclose administrative mark-up rates to the government through the new Health Care Staffing Agency Reporting Act, 2024.
  • Enhancing hospital governance by working with the sector to define best practices, ensuring providers across the province have access to the tools and resources they need to deliver high-quality care.

Enhancing Patient Care

  • Modernizing the provincial electronic health record (EHR) as the next step to being able to provide eligible Ontarians with safe, secure and direct access to their personal health information online through Health811 next year.
  • Allowing nurse practitioners to complete and sign mandatory blood testing forms to expand access to care for people submitting applications, including victims of crimes, correctional officers, members of the College of Nurses of Ontario, medical or nursing students, and paramedics.
  • Exploring options that would support consistent and quality mental health and addiction services by better understanding the variety of services provided by this workforce.
  • Reviewing the ambulance vehicle and equipment standards to enhance patient safety and make it faster for paramedics to access the tools they need to deliver emergency care.

Improving Service Delivery

  • Strengthening the authority of the Chief Medical Officer of Health to promote greater alignment, and consistency when issuing orders to local Chief Medical Officers of health across different health regions.
  • Updating public health regulations for public pools, zoonotic diseases, and diseases of public health significance to reduce burden and align with best evidence.

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