Transforming Community Access Services through Client- and Family-Centred Homecare Transitions

This article describes how one provincial health region adopted a client- and family-centred approach to improve access to community health services. Transition best practices and the "Triple Aim" supplied a framework for the transformation of transition of clients needing home healthcare services (Berwick et al. 2008). The need to improve the patient and family experience, establish and streamline professional practice standards, strengthen interprofessional collaborations, increase efficiency, create a critical mass of experts in the clinical domain of care transitions and program access, and evaluate customer experience were the organizational drivers for this transformation. The new framework identifies clients' needs and assigns a priority code. It also identifies which family member provides what support to the client and offers a one-stop service number staffed by individuals trained to provide client- and family-centred homecare services. This transformation of home healthcare transitions has improved the client and family experience, strengthened service provider satisfaction and generated efficiencies in prioritizing and delivering community healthcare services.