Improving access to vision rehabilitation care: implementation of the South East Ontario Vision Rehabilitation Service—an observational study

To investigate the effect of the South East Ontario Vision Rehabilitation Service (SOVRS), a centrally administered, regionally delivered vision rehabilitation service, on access to vision rehabilitation care.Pre-implementation (n = 1196) and post-implementation (n = 414) observational study.Patients referred for low-vision assessment at the hospital-based Kingston Health Sciences Centre Vision Rehabilitation Clinic and community-based Southeastern Vision Loss Rehabilitation Ontario clinics from 2014 to 2019.Markers for access to care (e.g., patient rurality, diversity of referral source, distance and time travelled, and wait times) were compared before and after SOVRS implementation.After SOVRS implementation, there was a significant increase (p < 0.001) in the number of rural patients seen in the community. After SOVRS implementation, the hospital-based Vision Rehabilitation Clinic site experienced a significant increase in referrals from outside of Kingston (p < 0.001) and non-eye-care clinicians (p < 0.001), a significant reduction in patient time and distance travelled (p < 0.001), a 6% decrease in median wait time for low-vision assessments, and a significant reduction in wait time between referral and first available appointment (p = 0.011).SOVRS, a novel service-delivery model for vision rehabilitation care, improved the delivery of and access to vision rehabilitation care in southeast Ontario through the integration of regional resources and services.