INTERPROVINCIAL COMPARISONS OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE-SECTOR LONG-TERM-CARE FACILITIES FOR THE ELDERLY IN CANADA

Long-term care services for the elderly in Canada have evolved into a vast array of types of facilities, levels and types of care and organizational arrangements, and are best characterized as operating within ten individual provincial systems. This study was undertaken in an effort to more fully understand the organization and financing of facility-based long-term care across the provinces. The wide degree of variability across systems renders interprovincial comparisons problematic and, to mitigate this, a reconciliation process was undertaken whereby facilities and beds were classified into four Categories of Care. While a few general patterns emerged, the results also serve to highlight the dissimilarities between, and within, systems. The article concludes by examining the potential value of such data to health planners and policy-makers.