By Daniel Fontaine
A report released Wednesday morning by the Office of the Seniors Advocate (OSA) comparing the number of fatalities in emergency departments from government and non-government operated care homes prompted a strong reaction from both BC Care Providers Association and the Denominational Health Association.
Regrettably, neither organization was notified about the report by the OSA in advance of its release, in spite of the organizations collectively representing over 70% of non-government long term care providers.
It is not as though we are ill-prepared for difficult news. After all, we represent the majority of B.C.’s seniors care providers, who in turn have the important role of providing care and comfort of residents who in most cases are nearing the end of their life’s journey.
What has been most challenging about the past 48 hours is not the “gotcha” style in which the report — titled From Residential Care to Hospital: An Emerging Pattern — was released by a public official. Rather, it was that the 13-page report – allegedly nearly three years in the making – lacked critical details.
No one is sure why the OSA’s latest report lacks a single citation, provides no datasets, comes to no firm conclusions, and gives no recommendations for change beyond doing more study.
This is stark contrast to the independent B.C. Ombudsperson, whose own thorough 2012 review of the seniors care sector is over 400 pages and provided 176 recommendations. That report challenged care providers, health authorities and the Ministry of Health to work together to improve the delivery of care.
To be perfectly clear, at BCCPA we consider any inappropriate admissions to the emergency department as an important matter. For years, our organization has been advocating for a one-percent shift of funding from acute care and into home and community-based care to reduce the number of hospitalizations and reduce wait times. If there is indeed a problem with over-admissions to emergency by non-government providers, we fully committed to seeing that appropriate actions are taken to rectify it.
According to CIHI data, there are approximately 350,000 emergency room visits by seniors each year in B.C., which contrasts with the approximately 900 inappropriate admissions (0.26% of the total admissions) from non-government care homes referred to in the OSA report.
Certainly, B.C. seniors would benefit if we made a stronger effort to reduce the overall number of inappropriate visits, not just those in long term care. Recommendations would be welcomed, for example, on how to make hospitals more age- and dementia-friendly.
We have contacted the OSA for more background information and the datasets within their latest report, and our research team will undertake a full analysis of the findings. After that, we will share our results publicly.
We would like to give our sincere thanks to Minister of Health Adrian Dix for reaching out to BCCPA yesterday, and for urging the sector to work collaboratively alongside the Seniors Advocate.
We are also appreciative that Ms. Mackenzie has reached out to BCCPA since her report’s release, offering to provide a full briefing on the numbers behind it. However, it is vital that there is a commitment by the OSA for regular and ongoing consultation with our organization and the sector at-large.
Working together as advocates, care providers, unions, educators, health authorities and government, is how we will all strengthen seniors care in our province. I am confident that we can make that happen.
