Long-term Care

The FPSC's Long-term Care Initiative (LTCI) (formerly called Residential Care Initiative) now covers 99.4% of the eligible 30,000 long-term care beds (both public and private).

Long-term care patients make up less than 1% of BC’s population and consume approximately 25% of the combined budgets for MSP, Pharmacare, acute care, and home and community care. At the same time, the number of family physicians who deliver residential care is steadily declining.

The initiative is designed to address these challenges by enabling physicians to develop local, scalable, and sustainable solutions that target to meet the following five best practice expectations and three system-level outcomes:

Best Practice Expectations

  • 24/7 availability and on-site attendance when required
  • Proactive visits to residents
  • Meaningful medication reviews
  • Completed documentation
  • Attendance at case conferences
System-Level Outcomes
  • Reduced unnecessary or inappropriate hospital transfers
  • Improved patient/provider experience
  • Reduced cost/patient as a result of a higher quality of care

With the FPSC’s commitment of up to $12m annually since 2015, the initiative has local projects led by almost all divisions. Click here for early results from five divisions who prototyped the initiative, which began in 2011 through the Ministry of Health.

Learn how doctors and local divisions are improving care for one of BC's most vulnerable populations.

Impacts on long-term care

More information:


For questions or details on available resources, contact: fpsc@doctorsofbc.ca.