In October 2019, the Office of the Senior’s Advocate released the 2019 Quick Facts Directory (QFD) that provides information on all publicly funded long-term care homes in BC. The data indicates a significant increase in care hours over the past year bringing public facilities closer to the 3.36 hours of care per bed per day, particularly for bed space that is contracted from private facilities. In addition to funded hours of care, the QFD reports on a series of quality indicators and new for this year are the release of inspection reports that shows a total of 765 inspections which found 1,103 infractions; 21% related to care and supervision, 19% to record keeping, and 13% due to staffing issues. The demographic data indicates the average resident age is 85 and 5% of residents are under the age of 65. Other highlights included: food costs have increased by 3% and ranged from $5.59 t0 $19.88 per day, the length of stay has remained stable, overall care per diems increased by 4.6% ranging from $182.23 to $272.35 per bed per day, the rate of reportable incidents remained constant and has dropped from 17.5 to 15.8 over the past five years, and the substantiated complaints has dropped over the past year from 7.4 per 1,000 beds to 5.9.
A summary of the QFD is available at http://www.seniorsadvocatebc.ca/app/uploads/sites/4/2019/09/QuickFacts2019-Summary.pdf.
To review the full report go online to the Office of the Seniors’ Advocate at https://www.seniorsadvocatebc.ca and search British Columbia Long-Term Care Facilities Quick Facts Directory.
If you are considering moving to or have a family member who needs to be moved to an extended care facility I would recommend taking a bit of time and refer to the summary and to the full report on the public facility you might be considering.
Terry Green
Chair, Well-Being Committee
