title: Exploring the ecology of Canada's publicly funded residential long-term care bed supply.
abstract: Despite Canada's increasing population of seniors and the varying long-term care (LTC) strategies that provinces have implemented, little research has focused on understanding the extent to which publicly funded residential LTC bed supply varies across provinces, or the factors influencing this variation. Our study involved an analysis in which we examined the association of three select jurisdictional characteristics with LTC bed supply: population age demographics, provincial wealth, and provincial investments in home care. No significant cross-jurisdictional "ecology" or inter-relatedness was found between the variation in LTC bed supply and any of the examined variables. Interprovincial variation in bed supply also did not statistically influence alternate level of care days specific to LTC waits, suggesting that these days were not influenced simply by differences in LTC bed supply and that other provincial-level factors were in play.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Service and Policy Research,University of British Columbia.
authors.forename: Saskia N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Sivananthan
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine,University of Manitoba.
authors.forename: Malcolm
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Doupe
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Practice,University of British Columbia.
authors.forename: Margaret J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: McGregor
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002170:Canada; D005260:Female; D005380:Financing, Government / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000191:economics*; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000191:economics*; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000191:economics*; D008297:Male; D012112:Residential Facilities / Q000191:economics*
keywords: variation