When a Nursing Home is Home: How do Canadian Nursing Homes Measure Up on Quality?

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) recently released the report, When a Nursing Home is Home: How do Canadian Nursing Homes Measure Up on Quality?  

The purpose of the report is to establish a baseline for tracking the quality of care provided in Canadian Nursing Homes.  The report compares nursing homes across provinces and territories using 8 quality indicators: Transfers, Walking and Wheeling; Incontinence; Depression; Behaviour Symptoms; Pain; Falls; Antipsychotic Medication; and Pressure Ulcers.  The quality indicators are derived from the Resident Assessment Instrument – Minimum Data Set (RAI-MDS) collected through the Continuing Care Reporting System (CCRS) at the Canadian Institute for Health Innovation. 

The report defines the indicators, describes the importance of each indicator, and presents results across provinces and territories to showcase how some facilities’ use quality indicator information to improve the quality of care for their residents.  Overall, the report found that not a single province or nursing home performed well on all 8 quality indicators suggesting that there is considerable variation across the country.