Role of care co-ordinators mischaracterized

Re: Ontario desperately needs a new and bolder approach to home care, Feb. 20 The article by Home Care 2020, a coalition of CEOs from VON Canada, St. Elizabeth Health and Bayshore, regarding home care reform is off-base in its characterization of the work of care co-ordinators.

As the provincial president of the Ontario Nurses’ Association, representing thousands of care co-ordinators, I agree with the authors’ initial assertion that “home care is in desperate need of a fix.”

Care co-ordinators are health-care problem-solvers who oversee the successful transfer of patients out of hospital. They advocate for and co-ordinate the delivery of health and community services to patients to ensure a dignified life at home.

Hence my surprise when I read the suggestion by the CEOs that care coordinators be disbanded and re-deployed “back in[to] the community, serving patients and working closely with other providers in the person’s care circle.” How does this make sense when care co-ordinators already work in the community, serve patients and collaborate with providers?

Later, the CEOs propose empowering nurses to make “direct referrals” to determine who needs home care. Recommending the creation of a “long-term care at home” option, the CEOs propose a “wider range of services” and additional “supports” to make this possible for clients. Yet again, they seem to forget the job of care co-ordinators is to facilitate the delivery of these services and supports to the home. Care co-ordinators make a positive difference every day working with patients and their families in their homes ensuring they have access to the home health care they need.

Home care needs fixes, to be sure. However, the conversation ought to begin with an accurate representation of the roles currently being performed by Ontario’s remarkable front-line nurses and health-care professionals. Vicki McKenna, RN President, Ontario Nurses’ Association