Sukumar Gugananthan

Ontario’s health system is at an inflection point. For decades, hospitals have absorbed capacity gaps across the continuum-an unsustainable “catch-all” that produces poor integrated care experiences and outcomes. Changing this hospital-first culture demands more than a plan: it requires systems thinking, strategic foresight, and a data-driven culture that moves decisions closer to the point of care. It also requires establishing a common collective vision and successful data initiatives through trust, empowerment and leadership at every level.

This case study explores how a single, composite metric termed Population Avoidable Days (PAD) is helping to unify leaders, clinicians, and partners around a shared “True North” focused on reducing inpatient bed days that don’t need to be in hospital.

You’ll leave with practical solutions on how to:

• Translate data into daily behaviours, align incentives across the ecosystem, and demonstrate how Learning-Health System practices turn insight into sustained action.
• Leverage absolute (not relative) measures like PAD to motivate improvements by frontline teams.
• Uphold patient-centered care when perceptions conflict with core values.
• Navigate structural barriers and system limitations to desired outcomes

Grow a culture that reliably turns evidence into practice, and practice into freed capacity and improved outcomes.