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patientengagement@ontariohealth.ca
For Patient and Family Advisors
COMMON TERMS
& ACRONYMS
WHAT THEY MEAN
Academic
(teaching) Hospital
In Ontario, hospitals are often distinguished by the level and complexity of
care they provide. An academic hospital is one that focuses on research and
provides clinical education and training to future and current health
professionals. They generally provide advanced and high-complexity care.
They are often affiliated with a medical school and other professional
schools.
Accessibility for
Ontarians with
Disabilities Act
(AODA)
A piece of provincial legislation that ensures goods, services, facilities,
employment, accommodation and buildings are accessible to individuals.
Alliance for Healthier
Communities (AHC)
An association that represents community health centres, non-profit,
community-based organizations that provide primary health and health
promotion programs for individuals, families and communities. (Formerly
the Association of Ontario Health Centres (AOHC).
Allied Health
Allied Health refers to members of the care team including various
regulated health care professionals such as registered dietitians,
occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, social
workers, speech language pathologists, as well as other non-regulated
professionals such as spiritual care practitioners.
A Glossary of Health Care Terms:
What is this glossary?
The Ontario health care system is filled with organization names, acronyms and other terms
that may be hard to understand. As a patient or caregiver partner, it can be common to feel a
bit lost in the many terms you will come across. It’s okay to ask health care staff to explain
the meanings of the terms they use, even if you have to ask more than once.
Below you will find a list of common terms used across the Ontario health care system.
This is a living document. Please let us know if you have edits/suggestions of terms that should be defined here.
patientengagement@ontariohealth.ca
Alternate Level of Care
(ALC)
A description given to hospital patients who are healthy and stable enough
to be cared for elsewhere, but who are waiting for additional care to be
arranged outside of the hospital such as at home, in a long-term care home
or a rehabilitation facility.
Appropriateness
Clinical decision on the right interaction, minimizes risk for provider and
patient. The term ‘clinical appropriateness’ refers to the way in which care is
delivered. The Canadian Medical Association has adopted the following
definition for appropriateness in health care: ‘It is the right care, provided by
the right providers, to the right patient, in the right place, at the right time,
resulting in optimal quality care.’
Association of Family
Health Teams of
Ontario (AFHTO)
An association for team-based primary care clinics in Ontario.
Board of Directors
A recognized group of people who oversee the activities of an organization.
A board’s powers, duties, and responsibilities are determined by the
organization’s own constitution and bylaws. For example, bylaws may
specify the number of members of the board, how they are to be chosen,
and how often they are to meet.
Canadian Institute for
Health Information
(CIHI)
An independent, not-for-profit organization that provides information on a
national level about Canada’s health system performance and the health of
Canadians.
Canadian Mental
Health Association
(CMHA)
A national organization that provides services and supports to help people
to maintain and improve their mental health, and to support recovery from
mental illness.
Cancer Care Ontario
(CCO)
Now a part of Ontario Health, this is the Ontario government’s principal
advisor on the cancer and renal system. It provides tools, resources and
data to help health care providers improve the delivery of care. The Ontario
Renal Network is also included under this umbrella.
Family Health Team
(FHT)
A team of family physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, social
workers, dietitians, and other professionals who work together to provide
primary health care to individuals.
Fiscal Year
(FY)
A timeframe used for accounting and performance management. In most
health care organizations, the fiscal year runs from April 1st of one year to
March 31st of the following year.
This is a living document. Please let us know if you have edits/suggestions of terms that should be defined here.
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General Practitioner
(GP)
A term used for doctor who does not specialize in one type of medicine.
General practitioners usually provide primary care services in the
community.
Health Records
Information about a person’s health history and interactions with the health
care system. Health records are considered personal information that
should be kept confidential and are protected by the Personal Health
Information Protection Act.
Health Technology
Assessment
(HTA)
A process to systematically review and summarize evidence about a
particular medical device or program that includes making
recommendations about whether it should be publicly funded.
Institute for
Clinical Evaluative
Sciences
(ICES)
An independent not-for-profit organization that leads studies to evaluate
health care delivery and outcomes in Ontario.
Information
Technology
(IT)
A department focused on clinical and non-clinical information systems and
technology.
Interprofessional
Care
(IPC)
This term describes when health care workers from different professions
(doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and others) work
collaboratively to deliver care, based on a patient’s needs and goals.
Knowledge Transfer
and Exchange
(KTE)
The process of sharing timely, useful evidence-based research findings
with decision-makers and others who use research as well as patients and
their families.
Local Health
Integration Network
(LHIN)
LHINs were not-for-profit Crown agencies in Ontario funded by the Ministry
of Health and Long-Term Care. As of April 2021 their health system planning
and funding roles were transferred into Ontario Health regions. LHINs now
operate under a new business name, Home and Community Care Support
Services, to reflect a focused service delivery mandate. They plan, fund and
integrate health services and manage and delivery home care in their local
regions.
Medical Assistance in
Dying
(MAID)
Provides patients the option to end their life with the assistance of a doctor
or nurse practitioner. Medical assistance in dying is provided only to legally
eligible patients.
Ministry of Health
(MOH)
The portion of the provincial government in Ontario that governs health care
and health promotion/prevention.
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Ministry of Long-Term
Care
(MOLTC)
The portion of the provincial government in Ontario the works to deliver
long-term care services.
Not-for-profit
A type of organization that does not earn profits for its owners. All of the
money earned by or donated to a not-for-profit organization is used to keep
it running and pursue its objectives. Typically, not-for-profit organizations
are charities or other types of public service organizations.
Nurse Practitioners
Association of Ontario
(NPAO)
An organization that advocates for nurse practitioners in Ontario.
Ontario College of
Family Physicians
(OCFP)
An association that represents family physicians in Ontario.
Ontario Health Team
(OHT)
OHTs are groups of providers and organizations that, at maturity, will be
clinically and fiscally accountable for delivering a full and coordinated
continuum of care to a defined population. OHTs will initially focus on
working together to improve care experiences and health outcomes for
their identified initial target patient populations and, over time, will build
towards integrated care for all patients through population health
management and equity-based approaches to improving care.
Ontario Health
Technology
Assessment
Committee
(OHTAC)
A committee of the Health Quality Ontario Board that supports Health
Quality Ontario’s health technology assessment program and legislated
mandate to make evidence-based recommendations to the Minister of
Health and Long- Term Care on which health care services and devices
should be publicly funded.
Ontario Hospital
Association (OHA)
A membership organization that aims to foster leadership, support
innovation and build linkages between hospitals and their communities.
Ontario Health
(OH)
The government agency in Ontario responsible for overseeing health care
delivery, improving clinical guidance and providing support for providers to
ensure better quality care for patients.
Ontario Medical
Association
(OMA)
Represents Ontario’s physicians, residents and medical students in areas of
economic interests, healthy policy and professional advocacy, and legal
services.
Ontario Nurses
Association
(ONA)
A union representing 65,000 registered nurses and health care professionals
– as well as 18,000 nursing student affiliates in Ontario.
This is a living document. Please let us know if you have edits/suggestions of terms that should be defined here.
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Ontario Patient
Ombudsman
This provincial office helps patients or caregivers resolve complaints about
their health care experience that haven’t been resolved through other
channels. It has the authority to handle complaints involving public hospitals,
long-term care homes and home care and placement services provided
through the LHINs.
Ontario Quality
Standards Committee
A committee at Ontario Health that plays a key role in advancing its quality
standards program, while also playing a broader role in Ontario’s health
care system. The committee works collaboratively with patients and the
public, clinicians, organizations across Ontario and the Ministry of Health
and Long- Term Care to recommend ways in which quality standards and
other clinical care standards can become reality. Its goal is a more
centralized, integrated and systematic approach to quality health care.
Patient and Family
Centred Care
A philosophy or guiding approach where patients, families and health care
professionals collaborate as partners in the planning, delivery and
evaluation of care.
Primary Care Provider
This is a health care provider or a team who manages a patient’s existing
health issues and is usually the first contact for a patient seeking access to
the health care system for a new health issue. Examples of primary care
providers includes, but are not limited to: Family Physician, Nurse
Practitioner, walk-in clinics, pharmacists, paramedics, telephone, or
computer-based services (i.e. Telehealth Ontario) or other any first contact
with the healthcare system.
Patient and Family
Advisor,
Patient/Caregiver
Partner
The term patient advisor, also known as patient partner, is commonly used
to include all of the people – patients, residents of long-term care homes,
people being cared for at home or through community programs, clients of
mental health or community services, families and friends of people receiving
care – who collaborate with health care professionals and organizations to
improve health care because of their experiences with the health system
and unique perspectives.
Patient Relations
The term used to describe the structure and/ or process that organizations
use to handle and resolve patient and family compliments, concerns and
complaints
Personal Health
Information
(PHI)
A general term used to describe any and all health information related to a
patient
Personal Health
Information Protection
Act
(PHIPA)
PHIPA provides a set of rules for the collection, use and disclosure of
personal health information.
This is a living document. Please let us know if you have edits/suggestions of terms that should be defined here.
patientengagement@ontariohealth.ca
Practice Reports
Customized and confidential reports for clinicians that give physicians data
about their practice,and share change ideas to help drive quality
improvement.
Quality Assurance
(QA)
A term used to describe activities that are undertaken to ensure the quality
of any task performed is at an acceptable level.
Quality Based
Procedures
A funding formula that looks at the whole episode of care or part of an
episode of care rather than one service at a time. Only certain types of
patient services are currently paid as quality-based procedures in Ontario,
including hip replacement, knee replacement, and treatment for chronic
kidney disease, congestive heart failure, and stroke.
Quality of Care
Information Protection
Act
(QCIPA)
Legislation that creates a safe space for health professionals to talk openly
about quality improvement, including the potential cause of any harm that
comes to patients, without fear that the information will be used against
them. The law applies to hospitals, independent health facilities, long-term
care homes, licensed medical laboratories and specimen collection centres.
Quality Improvement
(QI)
Focused and systematic activities that lead to measurable improvement in
health care services and health outcomes for patients.
Quality Improvement
Plan
(QIP)
A Quality Improvement Plan is an organization’s annual public commitment
to meet quality improvement goals. By developing a Quality Improvement
Plan, organizations such as hospitals, long-term care homes, and in primary
and home care outline how they will improve the quality of care they
provide to their patients, residents or clients in the coming year.
Quality Standards
(QS)
Quality standards outline for clinicians and patients what quality care looks
like. They focus on conditions or topics where there are large variations in
how care is delivered, or where there are gaps between the care provided in
Ontario and the care patients should receive.
Senior Leadership
Team
(SLT)
A group of health administrators consisting the CEO, vice-presidents and
others in senior, decision-making roles within an organization.
To be determined
(TBD)
A term used when further planning is needed.
This is a living document. Please let us know if you have edits/suggestions of terms that should be defined here.
patientengagement@ontariohealth.ca
Virtual Care / Digital
Health
Virtual cancer care refers to any interaction between patients and health
care providers, occurring remotely, using any forms of communication or
information technologies (computer, phone (either landline or cellular)), with
the aim of facilitating or maximizing the quality and effectiveness of patient
care. The term virtual care can be both an approach to care or a single
interaction between a provider and patient.
Year to Date
(YTD)
An accounting or performance management term used to present date for
the given fiscal or calendar year.
