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Ministry Programs

This section is intended primarily as a resource for health care professionals. Much of this information requires knowledgeable interpretation.

Ontario Public Drug Programs

Ontario Drug Benefit Formulary / Comparative Drug Index

Ontario Guidelines for Drug Submission and Evaluation

The purpose of the interpretive guidelines is to assist pharmaceutical manufacturers in making their drug submissions.

Ontario Guidelines for Economic Analysis of Pharmaceutical Products

These guidelines suggest an approach that manufacturers of pharmaceuticals can use to satisfy the information needs of the Drug Quality and Therapeutics Committee.

Health Care Provider Access to Drug Claims History

Starting in September 2005, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will begin providing most Ontario hospital emergency departments with electronic access to the drug claims history of patients receiving benefits through the Ontario Drug Benefit Program and the Trillium Drug Program.

OHIP for Healthcare Professionals

OHIP Out of Country Services

Bariatric Surgery

The Ontario government is improving access to treatment for Ontarians who are struggling with severe obesity by investing $75 million over the next three years to increase the province’s capacity for providing bariatric services including surgery.

Electronic Data Transfer

An introduction to the EDT Service, application forms, manuals and instructions on how to register.

Health Card Validation Reference Manual

For health care providers to check the eligibility of cardholders and the status of health cards and version codes.

Interactive Voice Response Reference Manual

Automated telecommunications system information.

Master Numbering System

CIHI Institution Numbers

OHIP Bulletins

Bulletin archive.

OHIP Forms and Applications for Health Care Professionals

Online Resource Manual for Physicians

Ministry policies and procedures relating to insured services.

Ontario Health Insurance Schedule of Benefits and Fees

For Physician Services, Independent Health Facilities, Services of Optometrists, Laboratory Services and Dental Services.

Payment Correction List for Physicians

Circumstances for adjusting an amount prior to making payment or reimbursing payment.

Technical Specifications - Interface to Health Care Systems Manual

For developers of computer systems used by health care providers.

Long-Term Care

Long-Term Care Redevelopment

This program oversees the expansion and modernization of Ontario's long-term care facility system.

CCAC-LTC Priority Project

The Priority Project supports CCACs in the implementation of a common assessment tool, the Resident Assessment Instrument – Home Care (RAI-HC). The project is a partnership between CCACs and the MOHLTC.

Education and Recruitment

Free Tuition Program for Physicians

This program provides financial assistance to final-year medical students, residents and newly graduated physicians, to offset tuition costs in exchange for a full-time return-of-service in an eligible community.

Guidelines for Application to the Tuition Support Program for Nurses

The Tuition Support Program for Nurses is part of the government's commitment to provide more families with access to primary health care, and to support the recruitment and retention of nurses to rural and remote areas across the province.

International Medical Graduate Program

Information for physicians on ministry programs and on certification and registration to practice.

Medical Officer of Health-in-Training Bursary Program

The ministry is offering bursary funding for Ontario physicians who wish to obtain medical officer of health qualifications.

Nursing Community Assessment Visit Program

The Nursing Community Assessment Visit Program will provide reimbursement to employers for travel and accommodation expenses incurred by nurses (and their spouses if applicable) for the purpose of assessing nursing employment opportunities in communities designated as underserviced with a Rurality Index of Ontario (RIO) score of 60 or over.

Recruitment

A listing of employment-related opportunities for health care professionals.

Re-entry Training Positions for Canadian Physicians

Through the Re-Entry Program, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) offers funding each year for physicians currently practicing in Canada to re-enter postgraduate medical training.  For Re-Entry training positions beginning in July 2010, the ministry has funding for a total of 50 positions for qualified physicians.

Repatriation Program

This program provides training positions for physicians who have completed postgraduate residency training that need additional training to meet the certification requirements of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Underserviced Area Program

This program is one of a number of supports provided by the ministry to help underserviced communities recruit and retain health professionals.

HealthForceOntario Marketing and Recruitment Agency

The HealthForceOntario Marketing and Recruitment Agency, a key component of the HealthForceOntario strategy, is helping to ensure that Ontario has the right number and mix of healthcare professionals, working in communities across the province to meet our health needs — now and in the future.

Research and Grants

MOHLTC Research Program

The Research Program monitors, coordinates and provides leadership to internal and external research activities that contribute to the development of health policy and for the dissemination of research findings to support evidence based decision making. Information is available on research programs, priorities, competitions and grant applications.

Assistive Device Program

This program provides financial assistance to Ontario residents with long-term physical disabilities to help them get equipment and supplies they need for independent living.

Emergency Management Unit

Infectious Diseases and Control

Clostridium difficile

This evidence-based Ontario Best Practice provides standardized policies and procedures related to the prevention and control of the transmission of C.difficile in healthcare facilities.

Consultation Paper on the Second Extension of the Needle Safety Regulation to Additional Workplaces and Health Care Services

Provided by the Ministry of Labour

Infection Prevention and Control Core Competency Education

This program is being developed for health care providers. The Ministry has launched the first three modules, geared to acute care professional staff.

Monkeypox Virus

Information about an emerging infectious disease in North America.

Mumps

Mumps is a contagious viral illness that can have serious complications in young adults, but it may be prevented by vaccination.

Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee

PIDAC provides advice on protocols to prevent and control infectious diseases, emergency preparedness for an infectious disease outbreak, and immunization programs.

Regional Infection Control Networks (RICN)

RICN coordinates infection prevention and control activities and promotes standardization in healthcare facilities across Ontario

Public Health

Agency Implementation Task Force

The Agency Implementation Task Force provides technical advice on the development and implementation of Ontario's Health Protection and Promotion Agency.

Capacity Review Committee

The Capacity Review Committee provided its advice to the Chief Medical Officer of Health and the ministry on ways to improve the local Public Health Unit system.

Clostridium difficile

This evidence-based Ontario Best Practice provides standardized policies and procedures related to the prevention and control of the transmission of C.difficile in healthcare facilities.

Hand Hygiene Improvement Program

Health care associated infections (HAIs) have a significant impact on both patients and the province’s health system. A new Hand Hygiene Improvement Program is being tested by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to help improve hand hygiene practices by Ontario’s health care workers.

Immunization

Provider information and resources on three new publicly funded vaccines added to the routine immunization schedule.

Influenza Vaccination Program

Information and Communications Products for Healthcare Professionals.

Monkeypox Virus

Information about an emerging infectious disease in North America.

Newborn Screening

This program screens for at least 28 metabolic, endocrine and blood disorders.

Ontario Prenatal Screening (Multiple Marker Screening Program)

Prenatal Screening Tests for the Detection of: Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18 and Open Neural Tube Defects

Ontario Public Health Standards

This section contains the Ontario Public Health Standards (OPHS) and Protocols which set out the minimum requirements that boards of health are expected to meet for fundamental public health programs and services which include assessment and surveillance, health promotion and policy development, disease and injury prevention, and health protection.

Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee

PIDAC provides advice on protocols to prevent and control infectious diseases, emergency preparedness for an infectious disease outbreak, and immunization programs.

Regional Infection Control Networks (RICN)

RICN coordinates infection prevention and control activities and promotes standardization in healthcare facilities across Ontario

Public Health Information & Information Technology (PHIIT) Office

Public Health Division’s PHIIT Office is providing technology solutions for Public Health Units and Public Health Division. Communication tools such as the PublicHealthOntario.ca portal, public health applications such as the integrated Public Health Information System (iPHIS), common standards & architectures and support for the transition to these tools and services are making Public Health e-Health a reality.

West Nile virus

The West Nile virus (WNv) is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause encephalitis.

Hand Hygiene Improvement Program

Health care associated infections (HAIs) have a significant impact on both patients and the province’s health system. A new Hand Hygiene Improvement Program is being tested by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to help improve hand hygiene practices by Ontario’s health care workers.

Emergency Health Services : Land and Air Ambulance

The ministry continues to be responsible for the delivery of air ambulance services and ambulance communications services as well as base hospital programs in support of land ambulances and the broader health care system.

Nursing

Health Outcomes for Better Information and Care (HOBIC)

HOBIC is the acronym for Health Outcomes for Better Information and Care, an initiative of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. The first phase of HOBIC involves only nursing, but subsequent phases will include other disciplines, such as occupational and physical therapy. The objective of HOBIC is to introduce a short set of standardized measures of patient status into nurses’ admission and discharge assessments.

Nursing Graduate Guarantee

The Nursing Graduate Guarantee is an initiative of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care aimed at ensuring that every new nursing graduate (RN and RPN) who wishes to work full time in Ontario will have that opportunity.

Guidelines for Application to the Grow Your Own Nurse Practitioner Program

Guidelines for Application to the Tuition Support Program for Nurses

Nursing Secretariat

The Nursing Secretariat provides strategic advice on health, the health care system and public policy issues from a nursing perspective.

Nursing Week Video  

Minister Smitherman kicks off Nursing Week by speaking to nurses about the importance of their profession in Ontario's health system.

HIV and AIDS

HIV and AIDS in Ontario

Prenatal HIV Screening Program

This program promotes HIV testing during pregnancy to reduce the risk of an HIV-positive woman transmitting the virus to her baby.

Capital Programs

Health Infrastructure Renewal Fund (HIRF)

This program supports hospitals renew their healthcare facilities. The HIRF grant supplements an institution's existing renewal program and helps healthcare facilities address any renewal needs on a priority basis.

Celebrating Innovations

Ontario health care providers have shown themselves to be innovators in health care. Their ideas and approaches are contributing to saving lives, improving health outcomes for Ontario patients, and leading to a better performing health care system overall.

Medical Advisory Secretariat

The Medical Advisory Secretariat provides up-to-date evidence-based assessment and advice about emerging health technologies and health services.

Alternative Funding Plans for Academic Health Science Centres

Information on the establishment of an Alternative Funding Plan in each of the four Academic Health Science Centres in Hamilton, London, Ottawa and Toronto.

Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is a viral infection that is carried in the blood and can cause severe damage to the liver.

Homes for Special Care Program

This program provides long-term and permanent residential care to individuals discharged from Provincial Psychiatric Hospitals (PPH) who require supervision or assistance with daily living activities.

Independent Health Facilities

The Independent Health Facilities Program licenses, funds and coordinates quality assurance assessments of community-based non-hospital facilities in Ontario that provide insured diagnostic services (ultrasound, x-ray, pulmonary function, nuclear medicine and sleep studies) and/or insured surgical/treatment services (e.g., cataract surgery, dialysis, plastic surgery).

Mental Health Programs – Tier 3 Provincial Working Group

The Tier 3 Provincial Working Group was convened in the Fall of 2005 to develop guiding principles and provide strategic implementation advice to the ministry with its transfer of ”non-bedded” mental health programs and services from affected hospitals to non-profit community agencies, where appropriate. Affected hospitals are those which received programs and services in the divestment of the former Provincial Psychiatric Hospitals (PPH). Non-bedded programs are mental health services delivered to individuals in their own environment (e.g., home, workplace) that do not require an overnight stay for medical care.

Operation Health Protection

Operation Health Protection is a three-year Action Plan to revitalize our public health system by preventing threats to our health and promoting a healthy Ontario.