WATERLOO REGION — No longer will people deciding on long-term care have to rely on personal anecdotes or how a home looks or during a quick visit.
Now they can use an online tool that measures the quality of care in long-term care homes across Canada and allows comparisons.
Researchers at the University of Waterloo lead the development of criteria used for the tool, launched this week by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
“It empowers the public by giving them information that they can use to make decisions or ask questions about quality of care,” said Prof. John Hirdes of UW’s school of public health and health systems.
“Now you can judge for yourself.”
The searchable database includes more than 1,000 facilities in nine provinces.
“We’re able to actually make very sophisticated comparisons,” said Hirdes, who developed the indicators with researchers at the University of Michigan and Harvard University.
Falls, bed sores and use of restraints and antipsychotic drugs are among the indicators, along with measures of pain and physical disability.
“What you get is a mixture of measures,” Hirdes said.
Falls are important because they boost the risk of broken bones in older people, leading to decreased mobility and even death. Unnecessary use of antipsychotic medication in long-term care homes has been in the spotlight recently, with a focus on reducing their use among residents with dementia.
He said the tool can also empower people who are already living in a long-term care home or their family to ask questions and push for improvement.
When Hirdes started as a young researcher in 1989, there were no standards for assessing long-term care homes.
“This is an example of where Canada has actually been a leader in the world in increasing accountability in long-term care,” said Hirdes, who works with colleagues in 35 other countries.
The tool is an extension of an interactive health-care website of the Canadian Institute for Health Information at yourhealthsystem.cihi.ca that includes data to give people a view into how our health-care system is performing.
The head of the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network applauds making this information available to the public.
“I think it’s great,” said Bruce Lauckner, chief executive officer. “They should have access to information about their health system.”
The health network uses similar data to targets and monitor care in various parts of the system with the goal of making improvements where needed. They’re now turning their focus to long-term care homes, looking at things like wound care and falls.
“The goal is to provide the highest quality, safest care for our residents,” Lauckner said.
Boosting the transparency of the health-care system, showing where we’re doing well and where improvement is needed, is vital.
“That’s really important,” Lauckner said.
By: Johanna Weidner
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