The GPSC Long-Term Care Initiative (LTCI) reports significant improvement in the medical care of BC seniors in long-term care facilities since the LTCI was created in 2015. The LTCI was formed through a partnership with the GPSC, divisions of family practice, health authorities, long-term care facilities and the Ministry of Health. It was set up in response to the declining number of family doctors and most responsible providers working in long-term care facilities and the significant projected growth in future long-term care patients.
Through the divisions of family practice, the LTCI supported local family doctors to design and implement community solutions that deliver dedicated care provider services to clients in long-term care facilities. Here’s how it made a difference:
- Communities have developed mechanisms for client attachment to ensure that all long-term care clients are assigned a dedicated MRP.
- Emergency department transfers of long-term care patients have decreased substantially since the start of the initiative, as much as 28 per cent in the Fraser Health Authority.
- 90 per cent of facility survey respondents reported that the overall quality of care provided to clients during the pandemic by family physicians and nurse practitioners was good or very good.
- Long-term care facilities are now able to routinely reach a family doctor after hours at a rate of 87 per cent, an increase from 64 per cent at the start of the initiative in 2015.
- Implementation of the LTCI is very high across BC with a 96 per cent uptake across the 31,000 long-term care beds in the province.
Building on the success of this initiative, the report outlines key recommendations for the future of long-term care, which include:
- Exploring how team-based care, patient medical homes and primary care networks integrate with long-term care.
- Supporting ongoing quality improvement reviews.
- Collaborating with First Nations partners so that indigenous perspectives, lived experiences, and cultural safety and humility are integrated into a holistic vision of long-term care.
The GPSC is convening a new LTCI Task Group that will further advise and oversee implementing the report’s recommendations. The LTCI Task Group will be comprised of a variety of stakeholders including long-term care physicians, nurse practitioners, division of family practice, caregivers, First Nations Health Authority, and regional health authority representatives.
This work is funded through GPSC, a partnership of Doctors of BC and the Ministry of Health. If you would like a copy of the report, please email evaluation@doctorsofbc.ca.