On May 7, 2020, we released a database of Long-Term Care (LTC) Homes in Ontario, derived from information published by the provincial government. We wanted to update the database and describe our primary sources, methods, and final results.
Primary Sources
Our first primary source was the Ontario government’s Ministry of Health Service Provider Locations (MOHSERLO) geospatial dataset, which described 626 LTC Home service providers in the province.
Our second primary source was the Ontario government’s Reports on Long-Term Care Homes website, where we accessed profiles of every LTC Home service provider included in the MOHSERLO dataset.
Methods
Working with the MOHSERLO dataset was pretty straightforward. We downloaded the dataset and its description on April 16, 2020. The dataset indicated that records for all LTC Homes had last been modified on April 4, 2020. We corrected obvious data-entry errors and eliminated metadata fields that were extraneous for our purposes. The result is described and available for download below.
Working with the Reports on LTC Homes website was more challenging and time-consuming. The source code for the website’s Search-by-Home-Name API included links to Home Reports on every LTC Home. We used these various links to automate a process for accessing the Profiles and Inspection Findings of every LTC Home on the website.
Every researcher has their favourite tools for automating the collection of this sort of information. We won’t bother detailing our approach; however, to allow others to review the results, we have made the source code of Profiles of 651 LTC Home service providers on this website available as a ZIP file.
Close inspection of these Profiles identified a match to all 626 LTC Home service providers included in the MOHSERLO dataset.
[NOTE: We disregarded the other 25 Profiles obtained from the Reports website: 20 Profiles were associated with LTC Homes that had been closed; 5 Profiles were associated with LTC Homes of uncertain status – and may prove relevant with further research.]
Final Results
The Ontario government’s MOHSERLO geospatial dataset and its Reports on LTC Homes website include matches for 626 Long-Term Care Home service providers in the province. By consolidating these two primary sources into a single dataset (described in Table 1 and available as a CSV file or Excel spreadsheet), we hope to give researchers a better foundation for studying LTC Homes in the province.
| Field | Definition |
|---|---|
| MOH_PRO_ID* | A unique identifier assigned to an MOH service provider. |
| NAME | English name of the LTC Home service provider.** |
| _ADDRESS* | Street address of the LTC Home service provider. |
| COMMUNITY | The city, municipality or census subdivision within which the LTC Home service is provided.** |
| POSTALCODE | The postal code of the LTC Home service provider.** |
| OGF_ID | Ontario Geospatial Feature (OGF) Id. A unique numeric provincial identifier assigned to each object. |
| LON | The longitude of the LTC Home service provider. |
| LAT | The latitude of the LTC Home service provider. |
| _TELEPHONE | The telephone number of the LTC Home service provider. |
| _FAX | The FAX number of the LTC Home service provider. |
| _WEBSITE | The corporate website of the LTC Home service provider. |
| _LHIN | Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) are not-for-profit corporations that are responsible for planning, integrating and funding local health services in 14 different geographic areas of the province. |
| _HCRC | Home, Community and Residential Care (HCRC) providers are the local organizations established by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care that provide access to government-funded home and community services, including admission into LTC Homes. |
| _ADMINISTRATOR | The Administrator has overall responsibility for the day-to-day operations of an LTC Home. |
| _LICENSEE | The Licensee is the holder of a licence issued by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and includes an individual or corporation, the municipality or municipalities or board of management that maintains a municipal home, joint home or First Nations home approved the ministry. |
| _MANAGEMENT_FIRM | Some LTC home operators may use a management firm to manage the day-to-day operations of the home. |
| SERV_TYPE | The type of health service provided, i.e. LTC Home service. |
| SERV_DET | Details of the type of health service provided, e.g. Nursing Home (NH) for-profit; NH non-profit; Municipal Home for the Aged (MHFA); Charitable Home for the Aged (CHFA).*** |
| _LICENSED_BEDS | The number of beds that are licensed by the ministry in the LTC home. |
| _SHORT_STAY_BEDS_APPROVAL | Short-stay beds are a response to the community’s need for ‘respite’ and ‘supportive care’ programs. LTC home operators have the opportunity to apply to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) to operate short-stay beds within their existing licensed or approved beds, and the MOHLTC approves the beds based on need and suitability of rooms offered. |
| _RESIDENTS_COUNCIL | A Residents’ Council is an independent, self-determining group made up of residents in a home. All residents are entitled to be members. The group, perhaps with an elected Executive, meets regularly to receive and discuss residents’ concerns, to plan activities, and to have a voice in the decisions and routines that affect residents’ daily lives. |
| _FAMILY_COUNCIL | An autonomous (self-led and self-determining) group made up of families and friends of the residents of a LTC home that meets on a regular basis with an emphasis on mutual support and advocacy. This group provides a voice in decisions that affect their loved ones and strives to develop a better understanding between families and the management and staff of a home. |
| _ACCREDITATION | Accreditation is a voluntary process that LTC homes may use to assess their services and help them improve the quality, safety and efficiency of their performance for the benefit of their residents and the health system. Long-term care (LTC) homes apply for accreditation to Accreditation Canada or the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). |
| _FLSA | Some LTC homes are designated under the French Language Services Act. This means that French-speaking residents are guaranteed services and care by members of the staff who speak French. |
| _ADDITIONAL_INFORMATION | Information in addition is added here such as the operation of a French language unit within an English services LTC home. |
This work, including the database, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. If you should use this work, please credit Paul Allen, paul@hartallen.com.