A health care initiative that saves up to $4,000 per patient and cuts down on emergency room visits is being rolled out at dozens of hospitals and home care providers across the province.

The ‘bundled care’ program connects patients with a single team of clinicians who meet and care for them before, during and after surgeries, even providing services once the patient has gone home.

It cuts out the confusion often associated with healthcare visits because it keeps much of a patient’s healthcare team the same throughout the process, and often assigns a coordinator — usually available 24/7 by phone or iPad — to manage that team.

The program was first used at Hamilton’s St. Joseph’s Healthcare in 2012, with tangible success, but will soon be coming to dozens of care providers, Dr. Eric Hoskins, the province’s minister of health and long-term care, has announced.

The pilot project, Hoskins said Wednesday, will involve six teams:

One team each in the London Middlesex, Hamilton Niagara, Haldimand Brant and North York regions, focusing on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure

One team in Ontario’s central west area, prioritizing patient transitions from the hospital to their homes, while reducing system duplication by providing electronic visits.

One team in Mississauga Halton that will allow cardiac surgery patients to go home on average three days sooner.

One team in Toronto focusing on stroke care and hoping to discharge such patients for 60 days.

“These new care teams will make it easier for patients to transition out of hospital and to receive the care they need at home, where we know they’d rather be,” Hoskins said in a statement. “This kind of care puts patients first by organizing their care team around the specific needs of a patient, delivering better access and better outcomes.”

At St. Joseph’s, the project has garnered rave reviews from lung patients, whose hospital stays have been shortened by up to 33 per cent. Among patients in the program, the number of post-discharge emergency room visits has been slashed in half, and rates of hospital readmission within 60 days have been cut by 56 per cent.

To date, the program has been available to those being treated at St. Joseph’s for compromised lung functions, congestive heart failure and lung cancer, and for those needing open-heart surgery or surgery for knee and leg issues.

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Kevin Smith, the hospital’s CEO, has previously told the Star he hopes to expand the kinds of patients for which the program is available, and to bring on more clinicians.

The province said Wednesday that it “plans to support additional bundled care teams in the coming year based on the results” of the new projects.