Health system priorities: supporting decisions for a system in transition 

Health and healthcare in Newfoundland and Labrador are being transformed.  The province has now moved from four regional health authorities to a single provincial authority organized over 5 geographical zones.  In addition, stakeholders from across our health and community services systems are at work implementing key recommendations of the Health Accord NL 10-year plan for health system transformation in NL.

To determine the best ways to support our health system partners during this time of transition, the team at NLCAHR's  Contextualized Health Research Synthesis Program (CHRSP) held a province-wide Priority-Setting Meeting in March 2023.

CHRSP researchers conducted a series of pre-consultations with the leaders of the former Regional Health Authorities and with senior leaders and Deputy Ministers of two government departments: Children, Seniors, and Social Development and the Department of Health and Community Services to discuss their suggested priorities for CHRSP decision support through the transition year.

What We Heard: CHRSP Priority Pre-Consultations February 2023

The outcome of the March 1^st meeting was a consensus list of priority themes for CHRSP decision support related specifically to two areas: the current health system integration from four Regional Health Authorities to a single Provincial Health Authority and the calls to action of the Health Accord NL. 

The summary report below provides a detailed analysis of the results of the voting/ prioritization process and a summary of our discussions with health system and patient partners. 

CHRSP Priority-Setting Report from March 1st meeting

 Summary of  CHRSP Priorities for March 2023 to December 2025:

• The healthc system identified key thematic areas of focus:
  • Health Human Resources
  • Healthy Aging/Care for the Older Adult
  • The Learning Health and Social System
  • Health Information
  • Public Engagement
• CHRSP will support the Strategic Health Networks whose work aligns with these themes and others
• CHRSP work will focus on Rapid Decision Support from 2023 to 2025 with a returm to annualized topic selection for 2026
• From 2026 onwards, CHRSP will produce both rapid reports and more comprehensive knowledge syntheses and jurisdictional scans for short -term, mid-term and longer term decision making.  

NLCAHR continues to consult closely with health system leaders to identify specific projects for which decision support is needed.  These cosultations have resulted in our producing a series of Rapid Decision Support reports on a wide variety of topics.  Our researchers are also at work on projects related to Patient Perspectives on Primary Care Teams, Low-Value Diagnostic Imaging, and a special project being funded by the Transitional Housing Association of NL.