Principles for Health System Capacity Planning: Insights for Healthcare Leaders.
James Shaw, Ivy Wong, Bailey Griffin, Michael Robertson, R Sacha Bhatia
Author Information
James Shaw: Scientist in the Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care at Women's College Hospital. He is a physiotherapist and health services and policy researcher who does international comparative health policy research, focusing on implementation science and innovation in healthcare.
Ivy Wong: Head of Policy at WIHV and Ontario Director for the Better Access and Care for Complex Needs (BeACCON) Network, a Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) SPOR (Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research) pan-Canadian initiative promoting innovation in primary and integrated care for people with the most complex needs.
Bailey Griffin: Co-manages the Women's College Hospital Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care (WIHV). In particular, she oversees a number of key strategic projects including the Institute's virtual care portfolio while contributing to policy work in the area.
Michael Robertson: Director of the Capacity Planning and Priorities Branch in the Strategic Policy and Planning Division of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. He oversees capacity planning and other strategic policy portfolios at the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.
R Sacha Bhatia: Director of the Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care at Women's College Hospital. He is also a staff cardiologist at University Health Network and a health services researcher focused on quality improvement and healthcare policy.
Jurisdictions across Canada and around the world face the challenge of planning high-performing and sustainable health systems in response to growing healthcare demands. In this paper, we report on the process of developing principles for health system capacity planning by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in Ontario. Integrating the results of a literature review on health system planning and a symposium with representatives from local health integration networks, we describe the following six principles in detail: (1) develop an aspirational vision, (2) establish clear leadership, (3) commit to stakeholder engagement, (4) engage patients and the public, (5) build analytics infrastructure and (6) revise policy when necessary.
