New heart failure program brings coordinated care closer to home

Residents of Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton County living with heart failure now have access to a newly launched, locally coordinated program designed to keep them healthier and closer to home. The partners of Kawartha Lakes Haliburton Ontario Health Team (KLH-OHT) are pleased to announce the launch of its Heart Failure program, which welcomed its first patient this summer.

The program was developed in alignment with the provincial Heart Failure Quality Standard and connects patients with the right level of support at the right time, whether that means their family doctor or nurse practitioner, a specialist, or community-based services such as home care. This also means that the Heart Failure Program team can see patients in existing primary care locations across the KLH-OHT geography. The goal of the program is simple: help people manage a serious chronic condition proactively, with a clear care team, an escalation point if things change, and support that follows them across the system rather than leaving them to navigate it alone.

This program is one part of a broader Chronic Disease Management and Prevention (CDMP) initiative now taking shape across our region, with a dedicated CDMP team being onboarded to support residents living with heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). As this team grows, it will work directly alongside primary care providers to identify patients earlier, provide education and self-management support, and reduce avoidable trips to the emergency department.

Primary care, the relationship people have with a family doctor, nurse practitioner, or primary care team, remains the foundation of a well-functioning, integrated health system. It is where chronic conditions are caught early, where care is coordinated, and where people build the ongoing, trusted relationships that keep them well.

That is why our partners across the region have been working hard to grow primary care capacity and help unattached residents connect to a provider. As of this summer, more than 4,138 residents have been newly attached to primary care since last fall, part of a coordinated push toward our shared provincial goal of connecting every resident who wants a primary care provider by 2029. This progress reflects the collaboration of family doctors, nurse practitioners, primary care teams, and community partners across Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton County.

Programs like the new Heart Failure initiative and the broader CDMP program are only possible because of this primary care foundation. As more residents are connected to a regular provider, and as supportive programs like CDMP mature alongside them, our community gains a stronger, more proactive system of care, one built around people, not just appointments.

“We are proud of the collaboration among our primary care, hospital, and community partners that made this program possible and we look forward to sharing more about the early experience of patients and providers in the months ahead,” said Stephanie MacLaren, executive director of the KLH-OHT, in a press release.