Inside the FLA OHT Health Home Model: How Kingston Built Ontario's Primary Care Blueprint

When Ontario committed to connecting every resident to primary care by 2029, the model at the centre of that plan wasn't invented in a ministry boardroom — it was built by an Ontario Health Team. The Frontenac, Lennox & Addington OHT (FLA OHT) and its partners designed the Health Home framework (originally called the Periwinkle Model) starting in late 2021, and it has since become the template Dr. Jane Philpott's Primary Care Action Team is bringing to the province.

What a Health Home actually is

A Health Home divides a region into neighbourhood zones — the way school boards assign schools — and connects every resident in a zone to a local, team-based primary care practice. The FLA OHT describes the framework as resting on three features: people-centred care, team-based care, and care close to home.

“A Health Home isn't just a clinic or building — it's a team of providers who know you, work together, and are committed to helping you live your healthiest life.”

— Dr. Kim Morrison, Executive Lead, FLA OHT

Midtown Kingston: the proof point

The Midtown Kingston Health Home, run by Kingston Community Health Centres and opened with a $4.1-million provincial investment, rosters people from Health Care Connect by postal code — prioritizing the immediate neighbourhood, the way a school prioritizes local students. Each family physician is paired with a nurse practitioner inside a multidisciplinary team, and the clinic is expected to provide team-based care to more than 8,000 people once fully operational.

“Since its inception, Midtown has prioritized meaningfully attaching people, both by postal code and through community partnerships. This ensures that comprehensive, team-based care is provided to those who face the highest barriers to access.”

— Dr. Eileen Nicolle, family physician, Midtown Kingston Health Home

The region's Health Home network keeps growing: the Greater Napanee Health Home aims to attach every resident of Napanee, and the CDK Kingston Health Home — with a physiotherapist, psychotherapist, social worker, mental health worker and dietitian on the team — connected 3,400 people to primary care in its first year under Dr. Ziny Yen and her colleagues.

From regional model to provincial mandate

Dr. Jane Philpott, who helped design the model with FLA OHT partners before being appointed Chair of Ontario's Primary Care Action Team, has been explicit about where the blueprint came from.

“The FLA OHT is one of the leading OHTs in the province and has been incredibly proactive on the primary care front. They got out ahead of many of the other OHTs in terms of the vision of 100% attachment to primary care.”

— Dr. Jane Philpott, Chair, Ontario Primary Care Action Team

Why booking infrastructure matters to this model

Health Homes concentrate thousands of newly attached patients — many of whom haven't had a regular doctor in years — onto team-based schedules with physicians, nurse practitioners, and allied professionals sharing panels. That's precisely the environment where patient-centred, EMR-integrated online booking earns its keep: meet-and-greet intake for new rosters, caregiver booking for families, multilingual access for equity-priority neighbourhoods, and load-balancing across a team rather than a single provider. The FLA OHT's neighbourhood-first design and an every-patient-books front door are two halves of the same idea: access shouldn't depend on who can get through on the phone.

Sources & further reading

• FLA OHT — About Health Homes
• FLA OHT — How Health Homes are connecting more people to care teams
• FLA OHT — Inside Midtown Kingston Health Home: a physician's first month
• FLA OHT — Dr. Jane Philpott leverages the FLA OHT Health Home model
• FLA OHT — Bringing care closer to home: Partnership Town Hall
• Kingston Daily — New health hub opens in Kingston ($4.1M investment)