OHQC -- Long Term Care, provincial results

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IMPORTANT NOTE: This site is a prototype; in its first phase of development. Please give us feedback on how to make it better. Because information is not available on all homes yet, we suggest that you do not use this website to help you select a home at this time. For more information, see About the Site.

Provincial Results

Here we look at different aspects related to the quality of long-term care in the province. Is it:

Effective in keeping long-term care home residents healthy?
Safe?
Resident-centred?
Appropriately resourced?
Accessible?

Understanding the Results

Results are presented as provincial averages.
For some indicators, you can view charts showing changes over time. (More charts like this will be available in the future.)
Click on any indicator for an explanation of what is being measured and ideas for improvement.
To view more information about all the indicators (technical document) click here.

Effective: Keeping People Healthy Long-term care homes in Ontario take care of frail, usually elderly people who have difficulty looking after themselves. Although people’s ability to function independently tends to decrease as they get older, there are ways to slow this process down for some residents. Click on any of the health measures below for ideas on maintaining and improving health.
PREFERRED DIRECTION: ↓ (lower score is better)
Theme	Indicator	Average Results (April '08 - March '09)
Bladder Function	Percentage of residents with worsening bladder control	19.4%
Mobility and Daily Tasks	Percentage of residents with increasing difficulty carrying out normal everyday tasks (getting dressed, eating and personal hygiene)	26.6%
Pain Control	Percentage of residents with pain that got worse recently	14.6%
Mood	Percentage of residents with worsening symptoms of depression or anxiety	21.9%
Language, Memory, Thinking	Percentage of residents whose language, memory, and thinking abilities have recently decreased	10.2%
Weight and Nutrition	Percentage of residents with recent unintended weight loss	7.5%
Potentially Preventable Emergency Department Visits	Number of potentially preventable emergency department visits for every 100 residents per year	Spring 2010
Click here to see more indicators for this category.

Safe: Keeping Residents Safe Long-term care residents are often frail or have multiple medical conditions, which can increase the chance of having a fall, pressure ulcer or infection. Some people with Alzheimer’s or other dementias have difficult behaviours such as wandering or aggressiveness that pose safety risks. Many elderly people are on medications, some of which may have serious side effects that could lead to falls or other injuries. Keeping residents safe depends on careful monitoring and different prevention strategies. Click on any of the measures below for ideas on maintaining and improving safety.
PREFERRED DIRECTION: ↓ (lower score is better)
Theme	Indicator	Average Results (April '08 - March '09)
Falls	Percentage of residents who had a recent fall	13.4%
Pressure Ulcers	Percentage of residents with a new pressure ulcer (stage 2 or higher)	2.8%
Pressure Ulcers	Percentage of residents who had a pressure ulcer that recently got worse	3.0%
Use of Restraints	Percentage of residents who were physically restrained	17.1%
Potentially Inappropriate Prescribing	Percentage of aged 65 years or older prescribed at least one drug that should be avoided among the elderly	Coming Soon!
Inappropriate Behaviour	Percentage of residents whose behaviour has recently worsened	11.0%
Infection	Percentage of residents with a recent bladder infection	4.5%
Click here to see more indicators for this category.

Resident-Centred: Resident Experience Ontario long-term care home residents place a lot of importance on maintaining their autonomy, having meaningful activities and living in an environment that feels like home and not an institution. Plans are underway to implement a standard annual resident satisfaction survey in every Ontario long-term care home over the next two years. In the meantime, the information in this section is based on a survey of 30 long-term care homes conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto. The results below reflect the percentage of residents who agreed to the following points.
PREFERRED DIRECTION: ↑ (higher score is better)
Theme	Indicator	Average Results from 2008-2009 Pilot Study
Overall Quality of Care	Percentage of residents who feel at home	67.3%
Overall Quality of Care	Percentage of residents who would recommend their long-term care home to others	78.9%
Enough Activities	Percentage of residents who felt there are enough activities during the week and weekend	77.0%
Involvement in Decisions	Percentage of residents who felt encouraged to participate in decisions around their care	66.3%
Staff Responsiveness	Percentage of residents who feel staff promptly answer their call	66.7%
Freedom to Speak Up	Percentage of residents comfortable expressing concerns to staff	83.5%

Accessible: Access to Long-Term Care Homes Placement into long-term care is a complex process, often involving hospital, home care and community services. It’s important to keep wait times to get into a home as short as possible to avoid an excessive burden on caregivers at home, or to avoid backlogs in hospitals. It is preferable for people to be placed into their first choice of home the first time around bothto honour the wishes of the resident and to avoid the disruption of moving from a second choice home when a first choice home becomes available. Click on each indicator name for more information.
Theme	Indicator	Average Results (April '08 - March '09)	Preferred Direction	Results Over Time
Wait Times	Median number of days to long-term care home placement	105 days	↓
Choice	Percentage of residents placed into a long-term care home who received their first choice of home the first time around	38.5%	↑
Click here to see more indicators for this category.

Appropriately Resourced Long-term care home residents have high needs for care. There should be enough qualified people to look after their needs in a way that respects their dignity and privacy. In the future, we will look at staffing levels in homes. At present, we report on injury rates among long-term care workers. Keeping staff healthy is an important component of making sure we have enough staff available to care for residents.
PREFERRED DIRECTION: ↓ (lower score is better)
Theme	Indicator	Average Results (2008)	Results Over Time
Long-Term Care Staff Worker Injury	Number of injuries per 100 long-term care workers per year	8.9
Staff Satisfaction	Under development	--
Staffing Levels	Under development	--
Click here to see more indicators for this category.

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