To VHA’s valued clients and families,

I am writing to share an update on some exciting developments at VHA.

We are actively engaged in the health system transformation that is underway in Ontario. VHA is playing a key role in initiatives to test new models of care, driving research projects to guide health care improvements and participating in positive advocacy to ensure a strong voice for home care in sector planning discussions. And VHA’s focus on continuous quality improvement means we are always enhancing our internal processes, innovating and looking for ways to leverage all that technology offers.

One of the initiatives I am particularly excited about is MyVHA, an online portal where clients can securely access information about their upcoming VHA visits and care team. You will be able to look up the schedule for your upcoming care appointments, see who is coming to provide care and request changes to your schedule if needed. We understand some of our clients want to access their schedule online and connect digitally and we believe MyVHA will become a vital tool for those clients and their families. For others who prefer to phone our office team, that option will always remain as well. MyVHA will be launching this October for many of our personal support clients and we’ll be sharing further information in the coming weeks.

Another important project centres around improving communication with our office team. We heard from clients, families and our staff that this was an important area to focus on and it is now one of our top priorities. I am pleased to say that as of mid-September, all personal support clients will be able to contact their coordinator directly to discuss scheduling of care visits and other matters, rather than needing to call in to VHA’s main phone line. We believe this approach will be more efficient for our team and will help you get the answers you need more quickly. We’ve been testing this approach in a few areas for the past few months and I’m pleased to say that we are seeing positive results. Some of you may have heard about this new process already, and those who haven’t, more information will be coming to you very soon.

We know this continues to be a challenging time for many clients and their families as the health sector faces unprecedented human resources shortages and I want to reassure you that we are doing all we can to hire and retain a fantastic team.  I hope you are enjoying the beautiful summer that we are having. Thank you as always for your support of VHA and our hard-working providers.

Take care,

Kathryn