Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

In the long-term care (LTC) context, there are several mechanisms for monitoring performance, but they are not always aligned to integrate data and evidence into care delivery in order to support a learning health system. This study's objective is to examine the relationships between different types of performance measures (such as access, outcome and quality of care) using LTC data from Ontario. The first stage of this study entails the creation of a dataset of about 626 LTC homes in Ontario: 1) background information about the homes (e.g. size, location, and ownership status); 2) information extracted from inspection reports released in 2024 (e.g. sanctions issued by inspectors); and 3) Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) indicators (e.g. restraint use) in 2023-2024. All the data are retrieved from the respective websites of the Ministry of Long-Term Care, Health Quality Ontario and CIHI's Your Health System. Data entry will be complete by January 2025. Descriptive and analytical statistics are conducted to present the state of Ontario LTC home compliance with legislation. The preliminary results illustrate variances in terms of regulatory intensity (e.g. number of inspection days and reports) and outcomes (e.g. sanctions) across homes (the data of each home are adjusted by the number of beds). The variances do not occur by chance and can be explained by size, location and ownership of the home. The strength of the relationship between different variables will also be determined. Next the relationship between health system performance indicators and inspection performance will be examined at the second stage of this study. In particular, the research will explore which indicators (if any) are good predictors of regulatory intensity and inspection performance and vice versa. The analysis will be complete by March 2025. This study has implications for integrating other forms of evidence (i.e., inspection reports) into policy and delivery decisions.