home-care-client-communication - Health Quality Ontario (HQO)

INDICATOR NAME

Name

Home Care Client-Provider Communication

Alternate Name

Home care clients who said that their provider explained things in an easy-to-understand way

INDICATOR DESCRIPTION

Description

This is the percentage of publicly funded home care clients, of all ages, who said their home care providers always, usually, sometimes or never explained things in an easy-to-understand way. Patient-centred care depends on communication and respect for clients' values and preferences.

Indicator Status

Active

HQO Reporting tool/product

On-Line Public Reporting

Dimension

Patient-centred

Type

Outcome

DEFINITION AND SOURCE INFORMATION

Unit of Measurement

Percentage

Calculation Methods

Numerator divided by the denominator times 100

Numerator including inclusion/exclusion

The number of respondents who responded, given a four point Likert scale, to the question: "In the last 2 months of care, how often did home health care providers from this agency explain things in a way that was easy to understand?"

Denominator including inclusion/exclusion

The number of total responses to the statement minus the total number of responses not applicable to these questions.

Inclusions:

General Survey Inclusion Criteria

All unique active or discharged clients receiving in-home services and discharged clients to placement in one of the following categories during the specified time period:

admission final
withdrawn, interim became final
withdrawn, placement by other CCAC
refused bed.

Exclusions:

General Survey Exclusion Criteria:

Excludes clients who received in-school service only
Nursing clinic services
Respite services
Medical supplies and equipment
End-of-life clients (SRC 95)
Clients not yet categorized (SRC 99)
In-home clients classified as out of region
Convalescent care clients

Other exclusions: Home care clients with hospital or death discharges; clients on hold in hospital; clients with a claim against the CCAC or before the Ontario Health Services Appeal and Review Board.

Question specific exclusion criteria: Respondents are excluded if they did not know the case manager or have not seen or spoken to the case manager, do not recall the in-home service, or were surveyed about placement services.

Data Source

Client and Caregiver Experience Evaluation (CCEE) Survey

Data provided to HQO by

Health Shared Services Ontario (HSSO)

Reported Levels of comparability /stratifications (defined)

Region, Time

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION

Caveats and Limitations

Several types of home care clients and services are excluded (e.g. end-of-life clients, respite services, nursing clinic services), suggesting these results cannot be widely applied to all home care clients and all home care services. Caregivers were surveyed in place of clients in the event any of the following criteria were met: 1) Client is <19 years of age at time of sample selection 2) Client is identified as cognitively incapable 3) Client is discharged from placement with one of the four discharge dispositions listed under the General Survey Inclusion Criteria. Surveying may be done while a person is still a home care client. They may feel like they cannot respond honestly because of risk to their services. This is mitigated by the survey not being conducted by the provider.

Comments Detailed

The survey is intended to be an ongoing evaluation tool, with four sample waves conducted annually in each region. The survey population comprises individuals who have received publicly funded home care services. Both active and discharged clients are included in the survey population. A minimum of 1,000 respondents are to be surveyed in each region over the period of a year. Some regions have chosen to conduct over 1,500 surveys per year. For each region, samples are based on a random selection of clients from either proportionate or disproportionate strata, depending on plans developed with the region. Strata may include: service level, geographic region, service type and/or provider (e.g., nursing, homemaking care, physiotherapy, etc.).

Footnotes

The term "client" is used in public reporting to denote an individual who received home care services. Other organizations may use the term "patient". Both terms refer to the same home care recipients.