The Provincial PoET Program
What is the Provincial PoET Program?
A New Training & Certification Program that helps Long-Term Care Homes in Ontario align their habits, practices and policies with Ontario’s consent obligations
PoET (Prevention of Error-Based Transfers) is an award-winning Ethics Quality Improvement Project based out of William Osler Health System where it has helped Ontario long-term care homes change the culture of decision making in positive and sustainable ways since 2012. PoET improves the understanding of consent, capacity, and substitute decision making in the home, and promotes alignment with Ontario’s Health Care Consent Act.
Through a financial contribution from Health Canada’s Health Policy Contribution Program, William Osler Health System and McMaster University’s Department of Family Medicine have collaborated to spread PoET and measure its benefits over the last three years (2019-2022). Study results include the following:Â
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Learn more about these findings in our publication in JAMDA.
The Provincial PoET Program offers three streams:
Initiation Stream
For homes new to PoET. This program stream helps homes to understand their current practices related to consent, capacity, and substitute decision making and identify and put in place sustainable changes that will help them to more closely align with Ontario's Health Care Consent Act-
A PoET Spread Leader will work directly with the home to observe current practices and then present, tailor, test and troubleshoot suggested change ideas
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Takes place over a 4-week period
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Tools, education and materials provided
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Access to two cycles of PoET Preliminaries (20 sessions)
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Access to two cycles of PoET Practicals (10 sesions)
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Delivered through a virtual model
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Upon successful completion, home will receive a 1-year PoET Certification
Refresh Stream
For homes preparing for recertification. This program stream helps to reinforce learnings and refine changes made in initial launch, and identify new opportunities for alignment with Ontario’s Health Care Consent Act
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Takes place over a two-week period
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Spread Leader will help the home to: (1) identify areas where previous changes could be reinforced and refined, and (2) identify where new changes could be implemented.
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Education sessions, tools, and materials provided
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Access to one cycle of PoET Preliminaries (10 sessions)
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Access to one cycle of PoET Practicals (5 sessions)
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Delivered through a virtual model
Recertification Stream
For homes interested in maintaining current PoET certification. This stream will measure, evaluate, and certify the home’s commitment to PoET changes and ongoing quality improvement related to them
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Takes place over a two-week period
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The PoET Team will work closely with the home to measure and evaluate the home’s practices related to consent, capacity, and substitute decision making.
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Report provided
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Delivered using a virtual model
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3-Year PoET Certification upon successful completion
What does having a PoET Certificate mean?
PoET Certification is a key element of the Provincial PoET Program, which offers Ontario long-term care homes the possibility to achieve 1-Year or 3-Year PoET Certification.
Having current PoET Certification reflects a number of things about a long-term care home to others inlucding that the home strives to: (1) meet legal and professional consent-related obligations; (2) maintain role clarity related to consent; (3) recognize and respect resident autonomy, and; (4) embed good consent-related practices into the decision-making infrastructure of the home.
1-Year PoET Certificate
To receive a 1-Year PoET Certificate, a participating long-term care home must, by the end of their work in the Initiation Stream meet all of the following criteria:
3-Year PoET Certificate
The evaluation framework that is used to grant the 3-Year PoET Certificate identifies homes that:
Homes that receive a 3-Year PoET Certificate are identified in one of three ways: Certified, Certified in Good Standing, or Certified in Excellent Standing. Â
Education and coaching sessions available to participating homes
All staff and physicians in homes that take part in the Initiation Stream and the Refresh Stream of the Provincial PoET Program have access to the PoET Preliminaries and PoET Practicals webinar series. These series occur on alternating weeks, and are available to any home in the active period of their participation.
Learn more about PoET Preliminaries & PoET Practicals in our information page
Not sure which stream of the Provincial PoET Program might be right for your home? Reach out to arrange a 15-minute discovery call with one of our Program Coordinators to find out what might best suit your needs.