Tuesday, July 16, 2013
It's about time
Well, I think it's about time to resurrect My Soul! I'm hoping to write at least every other day with more of my pondering and musing. Stay tuned :-)
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
For-profit versus not-for-profit delivery of Long Term Care
Alberta is failing not only seniors but Healthcare as well:
I came across a study this past week and in my search for knowledge it led me to further studies and so I kept on reading. With some amazement I realized that the direction the Provincial government is taking in regards to Long Term Care is not only inefficient but also adds additional costs Alberta’s Healthcare budget in the end.
According to a commentary in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) it states the following.
“In an Ontario study, government-operated facilities were found to provide more hours of direct patient care per resident than for-profit facilities” This also holds true to a study done in BC where not-for-profit facilities were found to provide more hours of direct patient care per resident than for-profit facilities, in addition both types of facilities received the same funding level from government. The commentary states “this difference remained after adjustment for the size and level of care facility”
How can Albertan’s be told that privately owned Long Term Care facilities are sound fiscal decisions?
This would be efficiency #1.
In the late 1990’s in BC, a study was completed that looked at the hospital re-admission rates for 6 care-centred diagnoses. Over 43,000 hospitalizations were examined for pneumonia, anemia, dehydration, urinary tract infection and decubitus ulcers and/or gangrene.
This study found that hospital readmission rates in for-profit facitlies were higher than not-for-profit facilities. The study states “crude hospitalization rates for any one of the 6 diagnosis were consistently higher in the for-profit sector. The Crude hospitalization rate outcome was 195/1000 for for-profit and 164/1000 for the not-for-profit sector.” This amounts to an increased hospitalization rate of approx 8.4% over not-for-profit facilities. Now I don’t know about you, but wouldn’t it make sense that if we had more not-for-profit long term care facilities we could realize potential savings by reducing re-admission rates? Would this also not increase capacity in our current system?
This would be efficiency #2.
According to another study from 2005 published in CMAJ staffing levels in not-for-profit care facilities were higher when compared to not-for-profit facilities. The author’s interpretation is “not-for-profit facility ownership is associated with higher staffing levels. This finding suggests that public money used to provide care to frail elderly people purchases significantly fewer direct-care and support staff hours per resident-day in for profit care facilities than in not-for-profit facilities.” The study found that in not-for-profit care centres an additional 20 minutes of care was provided per resident per day.
This would be efficiency #3.
Why it that the Alberta Government continues to insist on for-profit long term care facilities, when based on these three studies, it’s been shown to be more costly to taxpayers, provides for a reduced amount of care per patient and increased hospital re-admission rates?
In Alberta we have 99 long term care centre’s (April 2011 Alberta Health and Wellness, Health Facilities Planning Branch), 43 of which are for-profit facilities. I’m wondering how much tax payer money is needlessly spent on private long term care facilities and what capacity could the system realize by reducing readmission rates.
I came across a study this past week and in my search for knowledge it led me to further studies and so I kept on reading. With some amazement I realized that the direction the Provincial government is taking in regards to Long Term Care is not only inefficient but also adds additional costs Alberta’s Healthcare budget in the end.
According to a commentary in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) it states the following.
“In an Ontario study, government-operated facilities were found to provide more hours of direct patient care per resident than for-profit facilities” This also holds true to a study done in BC where not-for-profit facilities were found to provide more hours of direct patient care per resident than for-profit facilities, in addition both types of facilities received the same funding level from government. The commentary states “this difference remained after adjustment for the size and level of care facility”
How can Albertan’s be told that privately owned Long Term Care facilities are sound fiscal decisions?
This would be efficiency #1.
In the late 1990’s in BC, a study was completed that looked at the hospital re-admission rates for 6 care-centred diagnoses. Over 43,000 hospitalizations were examined for pneumonia, anemia, dehydration, urinary tract infection and decubitus ulcers and/or gangrene.
This study found that hospital readmission rates in for-profit facitlies were higher than not-for-profit facilities. The study states “crude hospitalization rates for any one of the 6 diagnosis were consistently higher in the for-profit sector. The Crude hospitalization rate outcome was 195/1000 for for-profit and 164/1000 for the not-for-profit sector.” This amounts to an increased hospitalization rate of approx 8.4% over not-for-profit facilities. Now I don’t know about you, but wouldn’t it make sense that if we had more not-for-profit long term care facilities we could realize potential savings by reducing re-admission rates? Would this also not increase capacity in our current system?
This would be efficiency #2.
According to another study from 2005 published in CMAJ staffing levels in not-for-profit care facilities were higher when compared to not-for-profit facilities. The author’s interpretation is “not-for-profit facility ownership is associated with higher staffing levels. This finding suggests that public money used to provide care to frail elderly people purchases significantly fewer direct-care and support staff hours per resident-day in for profit care facilities than in not-for-profit facilities.” The study found that in not-for-profit care centres an additional 20 minutes of care was provided per resident per day.
This would be efficiency #3.
Why it that the Alberta Government continues to insist on for-profit long term care facilities, when based on these three studies, it’s been shown to be more costly to taxpayers, provides for a reduced amount of care per patient and increased hospital re-admission rates?
In Alberta we have 99 long term care centre’s (April 2011 Alberta Health and Wellness, Health Facilities Planning Branch), 43 of which are for-profit facilities. I’m wondering how much tax payer money is needlessly spent on private long term care facilities and what capacity could the system realize by reducing readmission rates.
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