"High level of satisfaction with public reporting" Oh really?

The Ontario Auditor General did a follow up to his 2009 report on health care acquired infections (HAIs) in long term care homes. The good news is that all three of the homes he examined are now doing the twice daily cleanings of rooms for residents with C. Difficile infections.

The bad news is that there is little movement on public reporting of HAIs in LTC. (OCHU helped win this in the hospital sector several years ago.) Here is the AG's comment:

The Ministry indicated that it had examined whether long-term-care homes should be required to publicly report patient-safety indicators such as HAI rates, as hospitals do. The Ministry noted that it had consulted with the long-term-care homes and other stakeholders and that there was a high level of satisfaction with the current extent of voluntary public reporting through Health Quality Ontario. Although Health Quality Ontario does not provide public information on cases of C. difficile or hand-hygiene compliance among resident-care staff, it does report on other patient-safety indicators, such as the percentage of residents with worsening bladder function and the percentage of residents who had a new pressure ulcer (such as a bedsore) or a pressure ulcer that recently got worse. At the time of our follow-up, only about 125 long-term-care homes, including the three homes audited, reported information publicly on the Health Quality Ontario site. However, the Ministry anticipated that all homes would be participating by March 2012. The Ministry also indicated that it would re-evaluate in the future the decision not to have homes publicly report on C. difficile and handhygien compliance among resident-care staff.

"High level of satisfaction with the current extent of voluntary public reporting"? Whoever the Ministry consulted with, it did not include OCHU.

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