Seniors get free care home stays
Province to test program in attempt to cut down on overcrowded hospitals
Offering recuperating seniors free stays in retirement homes is one of the measures the Ontario government will test as it tries to tackle the issue of overcrowded hospitals.
The province announced in its budget last week that it would test a program that gives seniors vouchers for their stays in retirement homes in an effort to free up hospital beds, but it has not specified how long the stays would be or which communities the measure will be tested in.
Health Minister Eric Hoskins said the program aims to help socalled alternative-level-of-care patients, who are well enough to leave a hospital but don’t do so because they’re not able to live independently and don’t yet have a spot in a long-term care home or a homecare arrangement.
Such patients, many of whom are seniors, are an enormous expense to the health-care system and being stuck in a hospital isn’t good for their physical or mental health, Hoskins said.
“There are very few patients in ALC beds that love being there, or want to be there,” he said on Monday. “So the way I look at it is, the savings we accrue, we can afford to invest out of hospital, often at a fraction of the price and a better patient experience.”
The government has been facing mounting calls to act on overcrowded hospitals, where patients have ended up in hallways, boardrooms and even cafeterias when regular beds fill up.
In the budget, the government announced $24 million for “innovative” ways of dealing with patients in alternative-level-ofcare hospital beds.
Those funds will go toward what the government calls “demonstration projects,” one of which will be the voucher program, the health ministry said. The government will test the program, which is expected to be running this year, and use the results to inform future policies.
The voucher would cover the cost of recuperating in a private-pay retirement home until a senior is ready to move back home or into government-funded longterm care.
A similar program has been running in the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network since October 2014, according to the LHIN.