Enhancing Relationships in the Landscape of Long-Term Care

Pat Armstrong, PhD Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology, York University

Amit Arya, MD Division of Palliative Care, Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University

Eric Hanna, CPA, CA, MBA, CHE President & CEO, Arnprior Regional Health

Ashley Verduyn, MD Chief and Director of Medical Affairs, Providence Healthcare

During the “first wave” of the pandemic, over eighty percent of all of Canada’s COVID-19 deaths occurred within the care-home resident population. In Ontario, the government set up the Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission, whose mandate is, in part, to consider the impact of existing physical infrastructure, staffing approaches, labour relations, clinical oversight and other features of the long-term care system on the spread of COVID-19 in long-term care homes. One of the Commission’s interim recommendations is to require homes to establish or enhance relationships with acute care hospitals and public health units, using a “model… based on trust, collaboration and respect on all sides for the expertise all parties bring to the priority of ensuring the health, safety and well-being of residents.” Some provinces already mandate these relationships.

This panel is composed of health care providers based in large urban centres, an administrator of an acute care hospital, long-term care home and community services in a rural setting, and an academic who has contributed to national sociological and medical literature on long-term care, comparing outcomes in long-term care residents in different Canadian jurisdictions.

How did these relationships influence long-term care homes’ responses to the pandemic? How can these relationships be established and strengthened in the short-term? What areas of collaboration, if any, do Canadian provinces and territories require long-term care homes to maintain with other health sector organizations? What are the risks in reaching out to help a neighbouring health care facility during a pandemic, and in the long-term? And how can these risks be mitigated?