The Ontario Cardiac Rehabilitation Pilot Project

In February 2001, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care announced a $9.6 million, 15-month pilot project (the Pilot) to implement and evaluate a comprehensive, multifactoral model of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) service delivery at 17 sites across Ontario. This is the second paper in a three-part, policy-related series which provides a summary of the Ontario CR Pilot model and the Pilot implementation and evaluation methodology. The aim of the present paper was to outline the goals of the Pilot, the Pilot model of care, the organizational structure that facilitated implementation of the model, and the operational procedures that were put in place to evaluate patient outcomes and the generalizability of a regional model of CR service delivery. The model was based on the findings and recommendations of the Cardiac Care Network of Ontario's 1999 Consensus Panel on Cardiac Rehabilitation and Secondary Prevention, which was described in part one of this series. An upcoming final paper will describe the outcomes of the project and its recommendations for CR health policy decisions in Ontario.