Join your peers at The Pivotal Evolution of IHFs conference on Oct 20th at the Sheraton North Toronto Centre in Richmond Hill. Learn from government and industry leaders how abundant changes are affecting our industry.  Register today.

The enhanced, more robust patient complaint investigation and resolution process is onerous on IHFs. The administrative burden on clinic operators is not funded in the same generous manner as Ontario’s public hospitals.

For latest update see Ministry of Health Notice.

NOTICE FROM THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH REPAYMT OF ADVANCED PAYMTS

The Ministry of Health issued INFOBulletin 210307 dated March 26, 2021, regarding a subscription service.  Please see this link to the bulletin:  https://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/ohip/bulletins/redux/bul210307.aspx

Claims Services Branch of the Ministry of Health has introduced a subscription service for health care providers to obtain email communications.  This will allow IHF licensees, other IHF staff, interpreting physicians and quality advisors to add their email addresses to the subscription notification for INFOBulletins and OHIP Announcements.  This service allows you to maintain the email addresses that you wish to have notified when there is a new communication.

Note that the subscription service is NOT linked to the Independent Health Facilities Program (IHFP) database.  Therefore the IHFP will continue to maintain only 1 facility email address that is used for timely transmission of information by the IHFP and other organizations when communicating information specific to your IHF or general information not contained in the INFOBulletin format.  For example information related to the assessment of your IHF or general information regarding the current pandemic.  The IHFP recommends that this email address be a business email address, not a personal email address and that the email address identifies with the licensee’s business.  You should send an email to:  IHFP@ontario.ca when there is a change in the facility email address. 

The following Questions and Answers document was disseminated by the IHF Program regarding the recently released Directive #2:

https://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/publichealth/coronavirus/docs/directives/Directive_2_QA.pd

From Pauline Ryan, Director, Independent Health Facilities:

The recent Executive Order under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act provides IHFs with the authority to redeploy staff to hospitals to help with capacity needs  related to the current third wave of COVID-19 in Ontario. Staff will only be redeployed on a volunteer basis but the current and unprecedented need for health professionals to provide services and provide assistance in hospitals should be considered in this discussion.

DM memo to Health Sector Stakeholders 22-04-2021

CMOH Directive #2 – Health Care Providers – April 20 2021 FINAL AODA

For more information, please see the attached memo and the following link to the executive order (https://files.ontario.ca/solgen-oic-304-21.pdf).

The IHFP will reach out shortly with more information should you have available HHR capacity, and staff that are willing to be deployed to hospitals.

Please ensure that the IHF has a policy in place to address the arrival of
a patient with a guide dog.

*And in the Bulletin/Notices section of the website include the following.
Link the following to the word “policy” in the aforementioned sentence:*

*Accommodate Guide Dogs Accompanying Patients*

Under the *Independent Health Facilities Act (IHFA)* all IHFs are required
to comply with all applicable legislation. In Ontario the applicable
legislation related to the rights of patients with respect to their guide
dogs is:

1. Blind Persons’ Rights Act

2. Ontario Human Rights Code

3. AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act)

The attached link to the CNIB webpage provides Fact Sheets, Guides to
proper etiquette, etc:
https://cnib.ca/en/programs-and-services/live/cnib-guide-dogs/support-cnib-guide-dogs/become-guide-dog-champion?region=bc

Please ensure that the IHF has a policy in place to address the arrival of
a patient with a guide dog. This will provide your staff with the
information they need to proceed with the exam. It will also provide the
patient with comfort that the IHF and staff are familiar with and can
accommodate them in a respectful manner.

*Thank you.*

*Stephanie Bolton*
*IDCA*

http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/public/programs/ihf/applications.aspx