As Health Sciences North continues to deal with significant overcrowding, Hospital to Home program offers \u2018short-term, intensive transitional care\u2019 for patients who would otherwise occupy acute care beds<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no secret that Greater Sudbury\u2019s hospital, like many large urban hospitals in Ontario, is dealing with the enormous issue of overcrowding.<\/p>\n
In a March 24 news release, Health Sciences North said daily occupancy often exceeds 110 per cent. Every day, the hospital juggles care for an average of 644 patients in a facility equipped with 526 inpatient beds.<\/p>\n
As part of efforts to manage the situation, three months ago HSN launched the Hospital to Home program, which \u201cenables safe, timely discharge for patients who would otherwise remain in acute care beds while waiting for rehabilitation or community services.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the news release, the hospital said the program is already showing success.<\/p>\n
\u201cHospital to Home has changed how we support discharge and recovery,\u201d said Meghan Forestell, manager of access and flow with the Hospital to Home Program, in the release. \u201cIt provides a clinically appropriate option for patients who no longer need acute care, but aren\u2019t ready to recover independently. By transitioning patients home with structured, time-limited supports, we\u2019re reducing Alternate Level of Care pressures, improving access to inpatient beds, and strengthening hospital flow.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program provides short-term, intensive transitional care with a 72-hour post-discharge care plan, an in-home assessment within 24 hours and bundled services through eight- or 16-week care streams, depending on patient needs, HSN said.<\/p>\n
The hospital said so far surveys of participating patients have shown a 99-per-cent patient satisfaction and a 95-per-cent overall service rating. Fifty-five per cent of patients were discharged to independent self-care, while 30 per cent transitioned to Ontario Health at Home services.<\/p>\n
Three months after launching, HSN said ALC volumes dropped from 125 to 92, patients waiting for long-term care decreased from 73 to 30, and patients waiting for inpatient rehabilitation fell from 43 to 21.<\/p>\n
The program has served 361 patients since December 2025, provided 14,763 home visits and delivered 1,025 \u201cpatient touchpoints\u201d (meaning interactions between patients and hospital services).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe program continues to evolve, including the introduction of a four-week intensive rehabilitation bundle to further reduce pressure on inpatient rehabilitation beds,\u201d the news release states. \u201cPart of a provincial shift, Hospital to Home reflects a broader transformation underway across Ontario. The province has committed more than $1.1 billion to strengthen home care, including targeted investments to expand Hospital to Home models that support safe discharge, reduce ALC pressures and improve patient flow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Funding received from the province to support the program is very much needed, HSN CEO and president David McNeil said in the release.<\/p>\n
\u201cHSN has received funding from the provincial government to support the Hospital to Home program, and we greatly appreciate that support,\u201d he said. \u201cWe often have 120 to 130 patients in hallways and unconventional spaces every day. Our hospital has been built too small and needs to grow to meet current and future needs for health care in the region. So the support for Hospital to Home is very much needed for HSN and patients and families from the Northeast who rely on us for care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Health Sciences North continues to deal with significant overcrowding, Hospital to Home program offers \u2018short-term, intensive transitional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,220320,392],"class_list":["post-573217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-health-sciences-northhealth-sciences-north-hospital-to-home","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}