The Rehabilitative Care Alliance’s mandate has been renewed by Ontario Health and the RCA is moving forward on new initiatives for 2022/23. The renewal follows the success of the RCA’s 2019-2022 mandate, highlighted in a newly released summary report, Strengthening rehabilitative care: Supporting post-pandemic renewal.

The 2022/23 initiatives will build on previous work, while responding to the continued impact of the pandemic on rehab services and the entire health system. The initiatives reflect the important role rehabilitation will play in post-pandemic recovery and include the following:

  • COVID-19 and rehab utilization: Collecting and analyzing outpatient rehab utilization data and data available from provincial holdings to better understand utilization of publicly funded rehab services for patients post COVID-19 diagnosis
  • Rehab workforce: Working with provincial partners to lay the foundation for a workforce strategy that supports greater recruitment and retention of rehabilitation professionals across health care settings
  • System evaluation: Enhancing the RCA’s annual provincial Rehabilitative Care System Performance Report with the inclusion of health equity indicators and outpatient rehab data
  • Older adults living with frailty: Disseminating and supporting implementation of the RCA/PGLO best practice framework for rehabilitative care for older adults living with/at risk of frailty
  • Bundled care: Refreshing the RCA TJR Rehabilitative Care Best Practice Framework, toolkits and self-assessments to reflect changes in models of care resulting from the pandemic
  • Specialized rehabilitation: Defining when specialized rehabilitation services are needed (based on work of the GTA Rehab Network) to help OHTs identify and refer patients who require these services
  • Rehab care standards: Revising bedded definitions framework to reflect changes in the health care system and current context
  • Community rehab: Identifying actionable recommendations to promote community-based models of care as a means to address key challenges faced by Ontario’s post-pandemic health system

Stakeholders interested in participating in the task groups for these initiatives are invited to complete a brief expression of interest survey by April 20, 2022.