The SIMS partnership: transforming healthcare delivery in the Greater Toronto Area.

In the 1990s, organized healthcare delivery systems were described as "networks of organizations that provide or arrange to provide a coordinated continuum of services to a defined population and who are willing to be held clinically and fiscally accountable for the outcomes and the health status of the population being served." The concept has evolved and can be applied to a variety of contractual arrangements. As care delivery in Ontario shifts from a centralized, organization-centric model to a more system-focused, local planning model similar to those of its fellow provinces to the west and east, 15 healthcare organizations in the Greater Toronto Area have responded by forming a partnership to collaborate using information management as a catalyst and enabler of change with the goal of transforming healthcare delivery.