IMPORTANT: Possible Service Disruption for our Clients

Click here for the latest information related to COVID-19 at Nucleus.

A message to our clients.

We continue to be living in unprecedented times. Due to the significant rise in COVID-19 cases in Ontario, I wanted to communicate possible service changes and disruptions due to staffing shortages due to illness or high-risk COVID exposure.

Across the health system and beyond, organizations are preparing for the worst, which at this point, is not only COVID hospitalizations, but healthcare organizations operating with reduced staffing. At Nucleus, we have mandated vaccination, pay staff for their time to get vaccine boosters, and have very strict screening protocols. We have also communicated to all staff that they are unable to work if anyone within their household is positive for COVID, regardless if they are asymptomatic. This is due to the very high transmission of the new Omicron variant.

Service Disruption Plan Initiated

We have initiated our service disruption process. This process is enacted anytime resources may be limited or restricted. This is a similar process all of our other community partners are transitioning to. The goal is to minimize disruption for those clients who are considered priority one; who have no caregiver(s) or alternative supports to help them without Nucleus. Our Managers and Care Team Leads are in the process of reviewing all client care plans and will be in touch if there is any disruption.

Please review your emergency back-up plan and inform us of any changes or updates required.

We are also in the process of doing everything we can to increase PSW resources to meet client needs. This includes posting full-time and permanent part time as well as securing as much full-time agency staff as possible to fill in our vacant shifts and anticipated sick time. Please know our agency staff are also experiencing shortages due to illness.

What can you do?

Book your vaccination or booster to ensure you are protected. Having two doses of a COVID vaccine offers less defense against symptomatic infection from the Omicron variant. Early studies demonstrate having a booster dose provides 70-75% protection. If you need assistance, please contact Nucleus. Ontario has also shortened the required interval between doses from six to three months.
Test yourself if you are experiencing any symptoms of COVID or have been exposed to someone who has COVID.
Reduce or put services on hold. If you are not comfortable receiving services, you may opt to put them on hold for a time period.

Friendly Calls
As we enter another period of reduced social interactions, you may benefit or be interested in receiving calls from our friendly volunteers. If you are interested in learning more, speak with your Care Team Lead. Keeping our clients, staff, families and community safe is all of our responsibilities. We thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to navigate this ever-evolving situation.

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Building a Scalable Digital Health Ecosystem

October 23, 2026

Over the past four years, Nucleus has moved from using digital systems mainly as administrative tools to using them as part of daily decision-making, service oversight, communication and organizational planning. The shift is not about the tools themselves. It is about how the tools are embedded into operations. “Nucleus has been investing in staff digital literacy, process redesign and change management, recognizing that digital transformation is as much about people and culture as it is about technology. This thoughtful, practical approach positions Nucleus not just to adapt to system changes, but to help shape them,” shared Lori Holloway, CEO, Ontario Community Support Association. “The fundamental change is that Nucleus has shifted from reactive, manual and system-dependent work toward a more proactive, datainformed, digitally enabled operating model. Teams can now monitor and respond to issues – double-booked shifts, scheduling gaps, service-code exceptions, before they become larger problems.” - Shiva Vosoughi, Lead of Digital Health & Privacy A few examples from this year tell the story. 1. The Integrated Decision Support (IDS) platform: administered by the Ontario Hospital Association, gives Nucleus the ability to link internal records with regional data, including hospital admissions and emergency department visits. The result is a sharper picture of clients’ health system journeys and an ability to identify risk earlier. 2. Department-specific dashboards: give frontline managers real-time access to operational and quality indicators. Care Team Leads, Care Coordinators and managers now use data to support attendant performance review, Hospital to Home journey monitoring, scheduling oversight and operational issue identification, moving from reactive problem-solving to proactive operational management. 3. Service code data entry accuracy was sustained at less than 1% error throughout fiscal year 2025- 2026, with an average error rate of approximately 0.17%. It reflects data quality monitoring, staff accountability and operational checkpoints working in concert. 4 . Family Portal: Nucleus’ client and family-facing AlayaCare interface, added a major feature on February 23, 2026: clients and families can now access their personalized care plans through the portal app. The launch followed a careful cross-functional planning effort. The feature represents the next phase of Family Portal evolution: clients move from viewing schedules to seeing their own care goals and care planning information directly. 5. Dial My Calls , a new mass communication system, allows Nucleus to deliver pre-recorded, standardized voice messages to clients and staff in inclement weather and other emergencies. Expanded use cases are being explored. 6 . Custom applications and integrated data: Nucleus has built its own applications and linked previously siloed systems - incident reporting, finance, human resources, scheduling and hospital data - into a single picture spanning client assessments, service utilization and acute-care use. The result is a clear line of sight from frontline service to system-level outcomes like avoidable hospital visits and alternate-level-of-care days, and the ability to map a client's journey before and after Nucleus to advocate for funding and inform regional service planning. 7. Sandbox Initiative : In partnership with the University of Toronto's Sandbox program - a model that brings real organizational challenges into academic-applied research - Nucleus continued its food-insecurity geo-mapping and Adult Day Service business case work, and went further this year by sharing de-identified data on roughly 4,000 clients with student research teams in statistics and human biology. Their independent analyses found that clients rely on the hospital system less after starting with Nucleus, with the strongest effects among the highest-need clients: unscheduled admissions for clients with mental health conditions fell by roughly 40%, and clients with cardiovascular conditions saw inpatient admissions, readmissions and costs drop by 35–55%. These are exploratory analyses that describe patterns rather than prove causation, but they offer external, data-grounded support for what Nucleus sees in practice - that home- and community-based care keeps people healthier at home and eases pressure on acute care. For Nucleus, building a scalable digital health ecosystem means connecting people, processes, and information in ways that strengthen care today and create capacity for tomorrow. By pairing practical technology with staff expertise, strong partnerships, and a commitment to continuous improvement, Nucleus is turning data into action - helping clients remain healthier at home while contributing to a more responsive and sustainable health system.