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Objective The objective was to compare home care episode, standardised assessment, and service patterns in Ontario’s publicly funded home care system during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., March to September 2020) using the previous year as reference. Study design and setting We plotted monthly time series data from March 2019 to September 2020 for home care recipients in Ontario, Canada. Home care episodes were linked to interRAI Home Care assessments, interRAI Contact Assessments, and home care services. Health status measures from the patient’s most recent interRAI assessment were used to stratify the receipt of personal support, nursing, and occupational or physical therapy services. Significant level and slope changes were detected using Poisson, beta, and linear regression models. Results The March to September 2020 period was associated with significantly fewer home care admissions, discharges, and standardised assessments. Among those assessed with the interRAI Home Care assessment, significantly fewer patients received any personal support services. Among those assessed with either interRAI assessment and identified to have rehabilitation needs, significantly fewer patients received any therapy services. Among patients receiving services, patients received significantly fewer hours of personal support and fewer therapy visits per month. By September 2020, the rate of admissions and services had mostly returned to pre-pandemic levels, but completion of standardised assessments lagged behind. Conclusion The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with substantial changes in Ontario’s publicly funded home care system. Although it may have been necessary to prioritise service delivery during a crisis situation, standardised assessments are needed to support individualised patient care and system-level monitoring. Given the potential disruptions to home care services, future studies should examine the impact of the pandemic on the health and well-being of home care recipients and their caregiving networks.

Given the increasing number of patients with end-stage renal disease in Ontario, there is a need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the pretransplant evaluation, to allow for a seamless progression through the various steps in the process. Toronto General Hospital's kidney transplant program is evaluating various performance measures, specifically looking at waiting times from referral to initial evaluation and initial evaluation to final disposition, to use as metrics for monitoring program performance and stimulate quality improvement.

Case-based learning (CBL) is an interactive teaching approach involving small-group discussion to determine a range of solutions for a presented patient case. In light of the success that the approach has achieved in numerous professional and undergraduate programs, a pilot project was introduced in 2009 by senior health sciences students, who acted as CBL facilitators, at the University of Ottawa for undergraduate courses in the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences (ISHS). In collaboration with faculty professors, the facilitators developed CBL sessions consisting of patient cases that were reflective of the core objectives of health sciences courses. A total of 144 undergraduate students from three ISHS courses took part in these sessions; they were evaluated based on the calibre of their participation and a quiz. The quiz consisted of 5 questions that evaluated the students’ mastery of the concepts covered in the CBL session. The students also completed an evaluation of the pilot project. On a nominal scale of one to five, the students on average scored 4.13 out of a possible 5.00 (SD 1.48) marks on the quiz. In the evaluation, the students rated the project as having an overall learning benefit of 3.82 on a nominal scale of one to four. The evaluation indicates that the students perceived the program as having significant learning value and the quiz marks confirmed that CBL promoted the application of lecture content to practical scenarios. These preliminary findings suggest that implementing CBL in ISHS would enhance students’ academic experience. Further sessions based on this model would improve from more rigorous pre- and post- session assessments.