The Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA) is calling on designated supportive living provider organizations, Alberta Health Services and Alberta Health the findings of a survey that found across the province, not all residents of designated supportive living facilities – and their family members -experience the same quality of care.
The finding was highlighted by the HQCA on Wednesday when it released its 2016 designated supportive living resident and family experience survey results.
The survey gathered input from 7,400 Albertans (4,600 family members and 2,800 residents) who rely on care from designated supportive living.
“While residents at some facilities experience exceptional care, residents at other facilities have experiences that are less than ideal,” Andrew Neuner, the HQCA’s CEO, said in a news release. “Those facilities with high scores demonstrate that it is possible for residents and families to have very positive experiences.”
For individual facilities, the HQCA said residents’ rating of their overall care experience ranged from 6.0 to 9.6 out of 10 and family members’ rating of overall care experience ranged from 6.7 to 9.8 out of 10.
“Given the high response rate to this survey, it is clear that residents and their families want the HQCA to share and report on their experiences,” Geralyn L’Heureux, chair of the HQCA Patient/Family Safety Advisory Panel, said in a news release. “It is fundamental to residents’ overall quality of life, and to quality improvement, that the different organizations involved in designated supportive living care and services listen to and respond to the experiences of residents and their families.”
The survey asked respondents about factors including overall care rating, whether or not they would recommend the facility and experiences with food and various other dimensions of care, such as: staffing, care of belongings, employee responsiveness and communication with management.
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The HQCA said overall, family members “praised hardworking staff and management and the quality of care they provided to residents.”
According to the HQCA, the top three recommendations for improvement were related to food, staffing levels and the cleanliness and condition of the facilities.
The HQCA is a provincial agency that pursues opportunities to improve patient safety and health service quality for Albertans.
To view the 2016 designated supportive living resident and family experience survey results in their entirety, click here.
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