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). Preliminary data collected include*: 

*The COVID-19 pandemic began during the initial launch of the project, and this data was collected from 10 homes whose 1-year evaluation follow-up directly coincided with the first or second COVID-19 waves. Analysis which is to take place later in 2022 will allow us to control for the impact of COVID19 by having control homes for comparison.

The Provincial PoET Program 

offers three project streams to choose from:

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
$ 4800
  • A PoET Spread Leader will work directly with the home to observe current practices and then present, tailor, test and troubleshoot suggested change ideas
  • Takes place over a 4-week period
  • Tools, education and materials provided
  • Delivered through a virtual model
  • 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
$ 1950
  • Takes place over a two-week period
  • 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.
  • Education sessions, tools, and materials provided
  • Delivered through a virtual model

Recertification Stream


For homes interested in maintaining current PoET certification. This sream will measure, evaluate, and certify the home’s commitment to PoET changes and ongoing quality improvement related to them
$ 1450
  • Takes place over a two-week period
  • 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.
  • Report provided
  • Delivered using a virtual model
  • 3-Year PoET Certification upon successful completion

If you are interested in participating in a single PoET activity, please look into our A La Carte Activities.