Digital data that travels with residents helps ensure safer, faster, and more seamless care between hospitals and long‑term care homes in Ontario.
LOCATION: Province-wide initiative led out of Hamilton, ON and expanding across Ontario
The first hour matters. When someone leaves the hospital and moves into a long-term care home, those first few hours shape their sense of safety and routine. In the past, staff often received paper records or faxes, meaning they had to retype key details and phone hospitals to close information gaps. Those delays created extra work and made it harder for care teams to act quickly and confidently.
Long-term care homes across Ontario have been pushing for better, more efficient ways to manage these transitions, and they’re now leading real change by adopting Project AMPLIFI.
Project AMPLIFI began as a partnership between St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and PointClickCare and has since evolved to work with hospitals and long-term care homes across Ontario.
Now, when a resident is transferred from a hospital to a home, essential clinical information is electronically transferred with them – including medication lists, allergies, recent test results, and discharge summaries.
Modernizations, such as Project AMPLIFI, show how new approaches enhance the healthcare system and improve resident experience.
By leading the adoption of tools like AMPLIFI, LTC homes are showing how the sector is modernizing care and driving practical improvements for residents and families.
This digital connection means the team at the long-term care home can prepare before the resident arrives. Reviewing a chart that once took close to an hour now takes minutes, giving staff time to focus on people, not paperwork.
Homes say that staff are spending far less time on paperwork and far more time supporting residents, a shift families notice immediately.
“Before AMPLIFI, we’d wait on faxed discharge papers,” says Sarah Nguyen, RN at St. Joseph’s Villa. “Now, we know exactly what a resident needs before they walk through our doors.”
For residents, the shift means smoother arrivals and less need to repeat their histories. For staff, it means fewer delays, clearer information and greater confidence in clinical decisions.
Long-term care is part of Ontario’s publicly funded healthcare system, providing housing and 24/7 nursing support for people whose needs cannot be met elsewhere. Residents are admitted only after a clinical assessment confirms their care needs cannot be safely supported at home or in the community.
This smoother hand-off is especially meaningful for residents living with dementia or complex health conditions. Preparation and consistency help reduce confusion and anxiety. Knowing that the care team already understands their background helps them settle more comfortably. Families, too, feel more at ease when they know their loved one’s information has been properly shared and understood from the outset.
As Ontario’s healthcare system continues to evolve, AMPLIFI shows how these updates can remove long-standing barriers between hospitals and long-term care – strengthening continuity, reducing duplication and supporting safer transitions.
With more than 50,000 people waiting for long-term care, improvements like these help keep the system moving by reducing delays and supporting timely access to care.
By making information flow smoothly, this initiative helps long-term care homes start every resident’s journey with the clarity, dignity and attention they deserve.
