A new report Health Authority Investment of Revised Residential Care Client Rate Revenue: Summary Report for 2010/11 and 2011/12 was just posted on the BC Government website yesterday afternoon. It summarizes where the extra fees charged to clients required to stay longer-term in our acute care hospitals were re-invested.
According to the report “in 2010, the Ministry [of Health] estimated that $53.7 million in incremental client rate revenue would be available for reinvestment once the revised client rate structure was fully implemented.”
However, the report goes on to state “over 2010/11 and 2011/12, the total reported incremental client rate revenue investment was $85.62 million across all health authorities (Figure 1). This was significantly higher than the Ministry’s initial estimated increase in client rate revenue of $53.7 million.”
76% Of Investments Directed To Contracted Service Providers
Of the total $85.62 million in incremental client rate revenue, the majority (76 percent) was invested in contracted residential care facilities.The remainder (24 percent) was invested in health authority owned and operated facilities.
As you can see from the chart, a significant portion of the dollars re-invested were directed toward front-line care. In fact, in the Fraser Health Region, well over 80% of the funds were earmarked to increase staffing levels.
Provincially, there were 9.1 million resident care days provided in 2009/10. This increased by approximately one percent to 9.2 million resident care days provided in 2011/12.
Contracted facilities provided almost two thirds (64 percent) of the resident care days in BC.
Increase in Direct Care and Allied Health Care Worked Hours and FTEs
In 2011/12, there were a total of 28.15 million direct care and allied health care worked hours across BC. This represents an additional 2.08 million worked hours compared to 2009/10.
Provincially, direct care worked hours increased by four percent and allied health care worked hours increased by ten percent. To evaluate the impact of the investment on the size of the residential care workforce,changes to the number of full-time worker equivalent (FTE) were estimated over the two years.
Using 1,879 hours to reflect one direct care or allied health care FTE, there were an estimated 1,104 more FTEs across BC by the end of 2011/12 . Of these, 932 were direct care FTEs and 172 were allied health care FTEs. Figure 3 illustrates the estimated number of additional direct care and allied health care FTEs in 2011/12 compared to 2009/10, by health authority.
To read the report in its entirety, please click here.
