In this section :
Safety at Home: A Pan-Canadian Home Care Study
Disclaimer: some of the information, facts and figures presented in this study and its associated materials pertain to 2008 – 2013, and may not be up-to-date at time of viewing.
One out of every six older adults receives home care services in Canada. As the aging population continues to grow, there is a greater need to ensure the delivery of home care in Canada is safe.
The Safety at Home: A Pan- Canadian Home Care Study, published in 2013, is the first of its kind to examine adverse events in the home. The study examined the reasons for harmful incidents, determined the impact on families and clients and suggested how to make home care safer. The research team examined administrative databases and reviewed charts across the country.
At the time of the report, their work showed the rate of adverse events of home care clients in Canada was 10 to 13 percent over a one-year period. Extrapolating that to over one million home care recipients in Canada, up to 130,000 home care clients experienced an adverse event, with half being deemed to be preventable.
Research team and sponsors
The research team was co-led by Diane Doran, Ph.D, professor at the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto and Régis Blais, Ph.D, professor at the Department of Health Administration at the University of Montreal. HEC partnered with other sponsoring organizations for this study, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Institutes of Health Services and Policy Research, and the Change Foundation.
