On December 15, 2008, the Ontario government announced that it will implement quality measures and a public reporting system for home care services, as part of a new strategy to improve the quality of home care. The Ontario Health Quality Council has been tasked by the government with measuring and reporting to the public on the quality of home care and client satisfaction with these services. Ontario is the first jurisdiction in Canada to develop quality measures for home care and to make this information available to the public.

The Council has also been tasked with measuring and reporting on the quality of care and resident satisfaction in long-term care (LTC) homes.

Quick Facts About Home Care in Ontario

• Currently, about 600,000 people receive home care services in Ontario – which represents about 60 per cent of the Ontarians over 65.
• Home care services are publicly funded. Access to these services are coordinated by Community Care Access Centres (CCACs) which are publicly funded agencies that provide information about care options.
  
• 5,766,724 visits/hours of care were delivered in 2005/06¹
  • 67% of care delivered was personal support/homemaking
    
  • Nursing represented approximately 27%
    
  • Therapies represented 6%
    
    • Occupational Therapy – 2.2%
      
    • Physiotherapy – 2.1%
      
    • Dietetics – 0.2%
      
    • Social Work – 0.3%
      
    • Speech – 1%
      
• In a survey conducted by Pollara², 88% of Ontarians surveyed indicate a preference for home care for themselves.

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1 OACCAC, CCAC Sector At a Glance 2005/06, Electronic Reports, retrieved from www.ccac-ont.ca
2 Pollara, SSCA Procurement Review Quantitative Survey Results, March 2005, p.28.