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Patient-based funding good news for hospital By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Local officials are expecting hospital care in Halton to improve over the next three years as the Ontario government shifts toward a patient-based funding model. The Province recently announced it would begin adopting this new model, which will see hospitals funded based on how many patients they see, the services they deliver, the quality of those services and other specific community needs. Currently, hospitals get a lump sum based on their previous year's budget with no link to the type or quality of care they provide. Halton Healthcare President and CEO John Oliver said he was optimistic about the coming funding formula. "It really is dollars following patients and with the high growth that we have in Halton and the ever increasing number of people, we're hoping that it will be slowly moving toward a formula where part of our budget will be based on the number of people in the neighOliver said the existing model of funding, which only provides a small increase each year to keep up with inflation, does not respond to the increased need for care in a fast growing community like Oakville. Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn also said the new funding model makes sense, particularly for Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital and the other hospitals in Halton. "They are hospitals that have been able to deal with innovation on a pretty regular basis," said the MPP. "What we're going to do is implement a system where we reward innovation, we reward efficiency, we reward quality rather than just say, `Here is a lump sum of money. Do what you can', explained Flynn. "This is going to reward good performance and if I know our hospitals and our hospital staff, they are really up to this challenge." Flynn said this funding model makes hospitals more accountable and will result in reduced wait times because, with their funding on the line, there will now be an 5 · Thursday, March 29, 2012 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com "We will also do well in this formula, we believe, because we are a low-cost provider and we're efficient." John Oliver, president and CEO Halton Healthcare Services "This is going to reward good performance and if I know our hospitals and our hospital staff, they are really up to this challenge." Kevin Flynn, Oakville MPP bouring communities that are seeking care," said Oliver. "We will also do well in this formula, we believe, because we are a low-cost provider and we're efficient." additional incentive to see more patients and provide more efficient care at a higher level of quality. "We've made, I think, significant progress on the wait times under the wait-time strategy that we had in place," said Flynn. "We are starting to see a bit of a plateau in the wait times and this funding model, I think, is a further boost to reduce those wait times even sooner." As the budgeting will be performance based, Flynn said, inconstancies in hospital service will be eliminated, ending situations where something like a knee replacement surgery costs $6,800 at one hospital and $5,500 at another hospital for no visible reason. The Ministry of Health has stated other jurisdictions have used this type of funding model and have shown benefits such as decreased wait times and a higher number of procedures. Sweden adopted a similar model in 1992, England in 2003 and British Columbia and Alberta in 2010. In total, 91 hospitals across Ontario are transitioning to the patient-based funding model. 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