Recommendations from long-term care reports, commissions, and inquiries in Canada

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Public Policy Analysis
• Health Economics

Background:

• Numerous reports highlight consistent recommendations for improving Canadian long-term care (LTC) homes.
• A recurring theme across these reports indicates persistent challenges within the sector.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify the most frequent recommendations from Canadian LTC reports over the last decade.
• To estimate the cumulative financial cost associated with repeated studies on LTC issues from 1998 to 2020.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative analysis of 80 Canadian LTC reports (1998-2020) to code recurrent recommendations.
• Cost analysis involving direct and indirect expenses, adjusted to 2020 Canadian dollars, obtained from sponsoring organizations.

Main Results:

• The most common recommendation across 67% of reports was increased funding for LTC to enhance staffing, direct care, and capacity.
• A median of 8 recommendations were made per report.
• The total estimated cost for 80 reports was $23,626,442.78.

Conclusions:

• Long-term care problems and their solutions in Canada have been recognized for decades.
• Governments and agencies continue to generate reports, incurring substantial financial and societal costs without apparent implementation.