• Whitney Berta, Audrey Laporte, Dara Zarnett, Vivian Valdmanis, and Geoffrey Anderson.
• Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, Suite 425, Toronto, Ont. M5T 1M6, Canada. whit.berta@utoronto.ca
• Health Policy. 2006 Dec 1; 79 (2-3): 175-94.

AbstractWe aggregate long-term care (LTC) facility-level data collected by Statistics Canada to National and regional levels to make observations relating to environmental characteristics--including the age distribution by region, and market share by type of ownership--and organizational characteristics--including ownership, facility size, resident age distribution, and the types of care provided in facilities by ownership. We observe significant differences in ownership by region, in facility size by ownership, and in levels of resident care provided by ownership. Further, we examine some of the classic proxies for quality of care for the LTC sector in this paper, including a variety of staffing intensity levels, observing significant differences in staffing intensities by region. We hope that our observations prompt researchers and policy makers to question the desirability and implications of this variation in the Canadian LTC industry.

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