The Regional Municipality of
Durham
Hillsdale Estates – 300 bed home
located in Oshawa, Ontario
Lakeview Manor – 149 bed home
located in Beaverton, Ontario
Networking, Knowledge
Transfer and Supporting
other RAI Coordinators
 Four Homes implementing RAI-MDS Phases 1 – 4
 Decided to meet monthly to discuss
issues/concerns
 Collaboration was useful to each one of us.
 Were other homes met with similar
challenges/issues?
 Beginning of the Durham Region RAI
Coordinator network
 Spoke with a contact at the project portal.
 Advised of a similar network in the Ottawa
region.
 Contacted the individual who started the
network in Ottawa.
 He provided us with some helpful hints.
 Our journey began…….
 Obtained a list of all Durham Region Long Term
Care Facilities
 Contacted RAI Coordinators via email.
 No email, we phoned the home directly for
contact information.
 The email went out to the group of RAI
Coordinators to seek interest.
 The answer was an “overwhelming YES!!!”
 19 Invitations went out to join us
 Provided refreshments
 Comfortable environment
 10 out of 19 homes were represented
 First meeting – February 3, 2010
 Meet and Greet
 Details surrounding each one of us
 Drafted our term of reference
 Decision to meet monthly
 Rotate home sites for the host and chair
Some of the issues that were brought
to the table……..
 The dreaded buy in by staff, accepting
change
 Who, what and how were RAPS being
done?
 Implementing Restorative/Rehabilitation
Program
 Overall duties of a RAI Coordinator
 Auditing process, education
 RUG groupings/scores, maximizing your
CMI
Some of the challenges associated with the
Network….
 Commitment, finding the time to attend
 Some facilities were unable to host
 Frequency of meetings
 Locations, being able to meet in person
 Finding outside partners to speak at meetings
Some of the community partners asked to
attend our meetings were:




Duty Inspectors
College of Nurses
Neighboring Universities and Colleges
LHIN - Local Health Integration Network
 Other ways to improve and move forward
 SHRTN – Seniors Health Research Transfer
Network
 Attended a planning day sponsored by SHRTN
 Informative day which walked you through the
process
 Community of Practice
 SHRTN Collaborative is a network of networks
 Partnership that includes the Seniors Health
Research Transfer Network (SHRTN) Knowledge
Exchange, the Alzheimer Knowledge Exchange
(AKE), Ontario Research Coalition (ORC)
 Created in 2005, Grant of Ministry of Health and
Long term care
 Grown and developed into a significant
knowledge and exchange network
 Links caregivers, researchers and policy makers
in the province of Ontario with the aim of
improving care of seniors in Ontario.
 Membership is free http://beta.shrtn.on.ca
 Membership of SHRTN as well as specific
Communities of Practice (CoP) within the website
 CoP is a group of people to exchange information
 Form of interactive education programs, awareness
initiatives
 Examples of CoP’s are: Continence Care, Diabetes,
Mental Health, Wound Care, Nutrition, Hospice
Palliative Care, Falls Prevention and Medication
Safety
 CoP is a community or group of people who
have made a commitment to be available to
each other
 Offers support to share learning, and to
consciously develop new knowledge
 Membership of SHRTN CoPs (Community of
Practice) have increased quickly over the last
year
 CoP is supported by a Knowledge Broker and
an Information Specialist
 SHRTN members participated in over 250
knowledge exchange events and over 350
meetings this year in person
 Apply to be a Community of Practice for RAI-MDS
 Application process was detailed and lengthy
 Community of Practice would require a lot of our
attention and time
 SHRTN representatives asked us if we would be
interested in becoming one of the first “Community
of Interest”
 The application was made, accepted, the
partnership agreement was completed and we are
now included on the website under RAI-MDS CoI
(Community of Interest)
 This partnership allows us the opportunity to utilize
the technology provided by SHRTN for our
networking group, such as teleconferences,
webinars.
 It has also brought attention to our Network, we’ve
been asked to speak at other LTC Facilities outside
of our region on how to develop and implement
their own network.
Alberta: Health Research Transfer Network of
Alberta http://www.aihealthsolutions.ca
Saskatchewan: Quality Worklife Quality Healthcare
Collaboration http://www.qwqhc.ca/knowledgeexchange-resource
Manitoba: Canadian Cancer Society Knowledge Exchange
Network http://www.cancer.ca/manitoba/prevention
Manitoba: Knowledge Exchange and Community Planning
http://www.gov.mb.ca/healthychild/pdre/knowledge
Quebec: Reseau de recherche en sante des
populations du Quebec
http://www.santepop.qc.ca/en/axesstrategiques/
puc.html (web site available in English)
Newfoundland: Newfoundland and Labrador
Centre for Applied Health Research
http://www.mun.ca/regoff/calendar/sectionNo=G
ENINFO-0701
New Brunswick: Community on Aging Knowledge
Exchange http://www.cakens.com
University of British Columbia - Evidence-based Health
Care
http://toby.library.ubc.ca/subjects
University of Manitoba - Evidence-based Health Care
Links
http://www.umanitoba.ca
Centre for Health Evidence
http://www.cche.net/about.asp
University of Toronto - Evidence Resources - websites
http://www.cebm.utoronto.ca
Evidence-based Health Care - Ottawa Hospital
Links to clinical trials and systematic reviews, critical
appraisal resources and critically appraised papers,
Cochrane collaboration, educational resources etc.
http://www.ottawahospital.on.ca
Evidence-based Resources - Kellogg Library Dalhousie University
http://www.library.dal.ca/kellogg/bestevidence/evide
nce.htm
University of Ottawa - Evidence-based Health
http://www.uo-epc.org
Our goals are
To continue to generate awareness of the
importance of the RAI Coordinator role
Encourage and support others to form their own
networking groups within the province.
To generate awareness with Ministry Programs to
help facilitate proper assessment and knowledge
transfer of RAI-MDS
In conclusion, we challenge every RAI Coordinator
to begin a network in their Region!
We hope you enjoyed this presentation and we are
hopeful that it has shown you the benefits of
networking with other RAI Coordinators as well as
other network possibilities in your Provinces and/or
Countries.