IPCT Practical Guides
Ontario is investing in primary care to connect every person in the province to a primary care team by 2029. Building new Interprofessional Primary Care Teams (IPCTs) is an important part of that work. But creating a team is only the first step. Teams also need to determine how to work together effectively, organize their processes, engage their communities, and adapt their approach as they learn what works.
These practical guides are designed for the executive directors, managers, clinician leaders, and frontline staff who are building and strengthening IPCTs. They draw on research into what is working in Ontario teams and provide evidence-informed options that teams can adapt to their own community, workforce, and stage of development.
The guides are not intended to prescribe a single approach. Instead, they offer examples, lessons learned, and practical resources that teams can use to support their own implementation journey.
The resources below provide practical guidance to support teams at every stage of implementation. Explore each guide for strategies, implementation considerations, case examples, and tools that can be adapted to your organization's needs.
Practical Guides & Tools
About these Practical Guides
Read About these Practical Guides
Learn more about the practical guides, including why they were created, who they are intended for, and the key concepts and terminology used throughout. This document also provides background on the evidence and resources that informed the guides and explains how the guides are organized.
Recruiting & Retaining Your Team
Building and sustaining a strong team is an important part of increasing the capacity of interprofessional primary care teams (IPCTs) to attach and care for more patients. Across Ontario, many IPCTs face challenges recruiting and retaining health human resources (HHR), including competition for qualified staff and differences in compensation across sectors. While hiring additional nurse practitioners (NPs) or family physicians (FPs) can increase panel capacity, expanding and strengthening other team roles can also help teams meet the needs of more patients.
This practical guide explores approaches that IPCTs can use to recruit and retain team members, strengthen team capacity, and support the attachment and ongoing care of patients.
Onboarding New Patients in Primary Care
Read Onboarding New Patients in Primary Care: Strategies for Interprofessional Primary Care Teams (IPCTs) | Practical Guide
Effective patient onboarding is essential to growing primary care access. This practical guide helps Interprofessional Primary Care Teams (IPCTs) design efficient, team-based onboarding processes that support sustainable panel growth, reduce administrative burden on family physicians and nurse practitioners, and improve the experience for both providers and patients. Organized by task rather than role, it offers flexible, actionable strategies that can be adapted to different team structures and community contexts.