SENIORS IN TRANSITION:Exploring Pathways Across the Care continuum.

Report by
Canadian Institute for Health Information

According to this recent report – ADMISSION TO RESIDENTIAL CARE COULD HAVE BEEN DELAYED
OR AVOIDED FOR MORE THAN 1 IN 5 SENIORS.

Provincial health-care systems are struggling to place Canadians in the appropriate
continuing-care settings they need, potentially adding to wait times and barriers to
care, according to a new report.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) report found one in five seniors
who have lower-priority needs could have delayed or even avoided admission to residential
care and instead received care in their own home or in home-like settings.

CIHI’s analysis examines the following questions:
• How many seniors who enter residential care might have been able to be
supported in home care?
• What are the key factors that influence entering residential care?
• How does being assessed in a hospital influence admission to residential care?
• Do wait times in alternate level of care differ depending on the service to
which seniors are discharged?

With a growing senior population, the health-care system needs to adapt to address
reality and cannot afford to place people in the wrong levels of care.

People normally enter residential care after an initial assessment, which considers,
among other things, a patient’s need for physical assistance, their cognitive
impairment, whether or not there is an issue of wandering, and if a patient is living
alone or has a caregiver who is unable to continue providing care.

The report suggests demand for residential care might be offset by developing or
expanding home-care services to address these factors, and by further bridging the
gaps between hospitals and continuing care sectors.

According to Health Quality Ontario, the median wait times for long-term care homes
are 92 days. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Mount Sinai and the University
Health Network hospitals, said he sometimes sees people waiting months and, in some
rare cases, years to access residential care at his hospital.

“The data in this report by CIHI is showing that there still is a disconnect between
our home and community care system and our hospitals in terms of really trying to
understand what it would take to support an older person to return back home,”
Dr. Sinha said.
11/07/17