HQCA LTC Survey comment draft 1

Citizen Watch Continuing Care in Alberta and the Seniors’ Action and Liaison Team www.continuingcarewatch.com February 3, 2009 From: Citizen Watch on Continuing Care in Alberta and SALT Subject: MLA Bulletin 7, 2008 Health Quality Council Long Term Care Survey In 2003 and 2004, Albertans with family members in nursing homes were asked how they would rate satisfaction with the facility on a scale of 1 to 5, and asked for up to 3 reasons for the rating. Just over half of the family members of long term care facilities were satisfied or very satisfied, and nearly a quarter were dissatisfied, with the services provided. The HQCA reported “Satisfaction with long term care services provided to family members was already ranked at the very low-end of the list of health care service areas evaluated, and is becoming worse.” Access to long term care was also notably more difficult in 2004 than in 2003. (Satisfaction with Health Care Services: A Survey of Albertans Final Report 2004 http://www.hqca.ca/index.php?id=87) On December 10, 2008, the Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA) released the Long Term Care Resident and Family Experience Survey results. In 2007 and 2008, the HQCA interviewed 3,415 nursing home residents and received written survey questionnaires from 7,943 family members responsible for a resident about their experiences at over 170 long term care facilities throughout Alberta. The 2008 Survey is a sophisticated pair of ...