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Caregiver

Long-Term Care Research

Improving access to specialist advice in long-term care (LTC) homes to reduce burdensome transitions and improve resident quality of life is a key focus for our research group. In Ontario, LTC home residents receive specialist care at higher rates outside than within the home. Electronic consultation (eConsult) has demonstrated an ability to improve equity of access to timely specialist advice and offers a potential solution to this gap in care. We have shown that the majority of eConsults submitted by LTC primary care providers in 2017-2018 were related to skin (34%), neurology (13%) and pain (9%), and the most common questions pertained to drug treatment (58%), diagnosis (44%), and management (38%). In addition, to support eConsult uptake among LTC homes, we created the eConsult LTC Utilization and Savings Estimator, an Excel-based tool that estimates the number of off-site appointments that patients in a LTC home could avoid through eConsults, along with the consequent time and cost savings. Our ongoing research helps address LTC's previously identified gaps in care (e.g., poor access to specialist advice, quality of patient care and safety, long wait times) and supports the implementation and spread of eConsult in LTC facilities across Ontario and eventually across Canada.

Long-Term Care Research Publications

  • Hakimjavadi R, Karunananthan S, Alexander G, Fung C, Gazarin M, Houghton D, Hsu AT, LaPlante J, Levi C,  Tanuseputro P, Liddy C. (2023, January) What is the level of information technology maturity in Ontario’s long-term care homes? A cross-sectional survey study protocol. BMJ Open. Accepted. 

  • Staykov E, Helmer-Smith M, Fung C, Tanuseputro P, Liddy C. (2022, January). Development of the electronic consultation long-term care utilization and savings estimator tool to model the potential impact of electronic consultation for residents living in long-term care. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, e[Pub]. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1357633X221074500 

  • Fung C, Shah S, Helmer-Smith M, Levi C, Keely E, Liddy C. (2021). Clinical questions asked by long-term care providers through eConsult: A retrospective study. Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, 7. doi:10.1177/23337214211032055 

  • Helmer-Smith M, Fung C, Afkham A, Crowe L, M Gazarin M, Keely E, Moroz I, C Liddy. (2020, April). The Feasibility of Using Electronic Consultation in Long-Term Care Homes. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 21(8), 1166-1170.e2. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2020.03.003 

  • Shaver NS, Lapenskie J, Smith GA, Hsu AT, Liddy C, Tanuseputro P. (2020, February). How Often, Where, and by Which Specialty Do Long-Term Care Home Residents Receive Specialist Physician Care? A Retrospective Cohort Study. Journal of Applied Gerontology, e[Pub], 0733464819901255. doi:10.1177/0733464819901255 

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