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Objective: While it is generally accepted that adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) use health services to a greater extent than the general population, there is remarkably little research that focuses on the costs associated with their health care. Using population‐based data from adults with IDD in Ontario, this study aimed to estimate overall health care costs, classify individuals into high and non‐high cost categories and describe differences in the demographics, clinical profiles and health care use patterns between these groups. Design A retrospective cohort study based in Ontario, Canada, was conducted with the use of linked administrative health data. Methods: A costing algorithm developed for the general population in Ontario was applied to estimate health care costs of adults with IDD under age 65 for 2009 and 2010. Individuals were categorised into two groups according to whether their total annual health care costs were among the highest decile in the general population. These groups were compared on demographic and clinical variables, and relative mean costs for six types of health care services in the two groups were computed. In addition, we computed the proportion of individuals who remained in the high cost group over 2 years. Results: Among adults with IDD, 36% had annual health care expenditures greater than $2610 CAD (top decile of all Ontario adults under 65). These individuals were more likely to be female, to be in the oldest age groups, to live in group homes and to be receiving disability income support than individuals whose expenditures were below the high cost threshold. In addition, they had higher rates of all the physical and mental health conditions studied. Greatest health care expenses were due to hospitalisations, especially psychiatric hospitalisations, continuing care/rehabilitation costs and medication costs. The majority of individuals whose health care costs placed them in the high cost category in 2009 remained in that category a year later. Discussion: Adults with IDD are nearly 4 times as likely to incur high annual health care costs than those without IDD. Individuals with IDD and high health care costs have unique health and demographic profiles compared with adults with IDD whose annual health care costs are below the high cost threshold. Attending to their health care needs earlier in their health care trajectory may be an opportunity to improve health and reduce overall health care costs. It is important that we explore how to best meet their needs. Models proposed to meet the needs of adults with high health care costs in the general population may not apply to this unique group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Health care spending is known to be highly skewed, with a small subset of the population consuming a disproportionate amount of health care resources. Patients with cancer are high-cost users because of high incremental health care costs for treatment and the growing prevalence of cancer. The objectives of the present study included characterizing cancer-patient trajectories by cost, and identifying the patient and health system characteristics associated with high health system costs after cancer treatment. Methods This retrospective cohort study identified Ontario adults newly diagnosed with cancer between 1 April 2009 and 30 September 2010. Costs of health care use before, during, and after cancer episodes were used to develop trajectories of care. Descriptive analyses examined differences between the trajectories in terms of clinical and health system characteristics, and a logistic regression approach identified predictors of being a high-cost user after a cancer episode. Results Ten trajectories were developed based on whether patients were high- or low-cost users before and after their cancer episode. The most common trajectory represented patients who were low-cost in the year before cancer, survived treatment, and continued to be low-cost in the year after cancer (31.4%); stage ii cancer of the male genital system was the most common diagnosis within that trajectory. Regression analyses identified increases in age and in multimorbidity and low continuity of care as the strongest predictors of high-cost status after cancer. Conclusions Findings highlight an opportunity to proactively identify patients who might transition to high-cost status after cancer treatment and to remediate that transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July of 1998, the Medicare payment system for skilled nursing facilities changed from a cost-based to a prospective payment system (PPS). The present study used nursing home resident data from Ohio and Michigan before in 1998 and 1999 to examine how the change to PPS payment affected resident access to rehabilitation therapy and resident discharge outcomes (N=167,618). Under PPS, nursing homes changed treatment patterns and provided the most profitable levels of therapy. Overall, the change to PPS was associated with increased access (Adjusted Odds Ratio 1.23) but 15% less rehabilitation therapy time. Following PPS the likelihood of discharges to the community declined (AOR = 0.50). On the other hand, PPS was associated with 0.73 odds for discharge to hospital and 0.51 times the odds for deaths. While PPS improved resident access to rehabilitation therapy, the change in the payment system may not have improved resident outcomes.

There is considerable interest in understanding how Medicaid payment affects nursing home provider behavior and the delivery of nursing home care. This study examined how Medicaid payment methods and payment rates affected access to rehabilitation therapy for Medicaid residents in six states between 1992 and 1995 (N=247,955). State, market, facility, and resident level characteristics were included in multivariate regression analyses. The results indicate that Medicaid residents had lower access to rehabilitation therapy than private-pay residents (Adjusted Odds Ratio 0.87; C.I.: 0.83-0.89). However, Medicaid residents in states using case-mix adjusted payment rates were more likely to receive rehabilitation than Medicaid residents in states using prospective facility-specific payment (AOR=2.09; C.I.: 187-2.33). Medicaid program generosity had a very small negative relationship to rehabilitation access and a small positive relationship to weekly rehabilitation time. While maintaining substantial control over total program expenditures, the present analyses indicate that case-mix payment can improve resident access to rehabilitation therapy.

BackgroundOlder adults with multimorbidity and complex care needs (CCN) are among those most likely to experience frequent care transitions between settings, particularly from hospital to home. Transition periods mark vulnerable moments in care for individuals with CCN. Poor communication and incomplete information transfer between clinicians and organizations involved in the transition from hospital to home can impede access to needed support and resources. Establishing digitally supported communication that enables person-centered care and supported self-management may offer significant advantages as we support older adults with CCN transitioning from hospital to home. ObjectiveThis protocol outlines the plan for the development, implementation, and evaluation of a Digital Bridge co-designed to support person-centered health care transitions for older adults with CCN. The Digital Bridge builds on the foundation of two validated technologies: Care Connector, designed to improve interprofessional communication in hospital, and the electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes (ePRO) tool, designed to support goal-oriented care planning and self-management in primary care settings. This project poses three overarching research questions that focus on adapting the technology to local contexts, evaluating the impact of the Digital Bridge in relation to the quadruple aim, and exploring the potential to scale and spread the technology. MethodsThe study includes two phases: workflow co-design (phase 1), followed by implementation and evaluation (phase 2). Phase 1 will include iterative co-design working groups with patients, caregivers, hospital providers, and primary care providers to develop a transition workflow that will leverage the use of Care Connector and ePRO to support communication through the transition process. Phase 2 will include implementation and evaluation of the Digital Bridge within two hospital systems in Ontario in acute and rehab settings (600 patients: 300 baseline and 300 implementation). The primary outcome measure for this study is the Care Transitions Measure–3 to assess transition quality. An embedded ethnography will be included to capture context and process data to inform the implementation assessment and development of a scale and spread strategy. An Integrated Knowledge Translation approach is taken to inform the study. An advisory group will be established to provide insight and feedback regarding the project design and implementation, leading the development of the project knowledge translation strategy and associated outputs. ResultsThis project is underway and expected to be complete by Spring 2024. ConclusionsGiven the real-world implementation of Digital Bridge, practice changes in the research sites and variable adherence to the implementation protocols are likely. Capturing and understanding these considerations through a mixed-methods approach will help identify the range of factors that may influence study results. Should a favorable evaluation suggest wide adoption of the proposed intervention, this project could lead to positive impact at patient, clinician, organizational, and health system levels. Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT04287192; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04287192 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)PRR1-10.2196/20220

Study design:Retrospective economic analysis.Objectives:To determine the total direct costs of publicly funded health care utilization for the three fiscal years 2003/04 to 2005/06 (1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004 to 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006), from the time of initial hospitalization to 1 year after initial acute discharge among individuals with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI).Setting:Ontario, Canada.Methods:Health system costs were calculated for 559 individuals with traumatic SCI (C1-T12 AIS A-D) for acute inpatient, emergency department, inpatient rehabilitation (that is, short-stay inpatient rehabilitation), complex continuing care (CCC) (i.e., long-stay inpatient rehabilitation), home care services, and physician visits in the year after index hospitalization. All care costs were calculated from the government payer′s perspective, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.Results:Total direct costs of health care utilization in this traumatic SCI population (including the acute care costs of the index event and inpatient readmission in the following year after the index discharge) were substantial: $102 900 per person in 2003/04, $100 476 in 2004/05 and $123 674 in 2005/06 Canadian Dollars (2005 CDN $). The largest cost driver to the health care system was inpatient rehabilitation care. From 2003/04 to 2005/06, the average per person cost of rehabilitation was approximately three times the average per person costs of inpatient acute care.Conclusion:The high costs and long length of stay in inpatient rehabilitation are important system cost drivers, emphasizing the need to evaluate treatment efficacy and subsequent health outcomes in the inpatient rehabilitation setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. In this study, Outcomes are described for patients receiving 'slow stream' rehabilitation care (called low tolerance long duration rehabilitation in Ontario, Canada consisting of approximately 5 h of rehabilitation weekly) for patients recovering from stroke in Ontario complex continuing care (CCC) (chronic) healthcare settings. Method. In 2006-2007, 81 post-acute stroke patients recovering in six Ontario, Canada CCC settings were studied. Both primary and secondary data sources were used to calculate six clinical characteristics of study patients and three outcomes: patient satisfaction with care, discharge location, and length of CCC stay. In addition, descriptive statistics, tests of difference were employed to examine differences in clinical characteristics and outcomes for patients across facilities. Results. Mean patient age was 74 years, 59% were females, 51% were married, and 34.6% lived alone prior to hospitalization. Patient data on six clinical characteristics is described. Almost half of patients were discharged to independent or semi-independent living. Mean length of stay (LOS) was 112.8 days. Mean scores for patient-reported satisfaction with care were 71 (out of 100). There were statistically significant differences in all outcomes across facilities. Conclusions. Slower paced and less intensive rehabilitation was successful in transitioning the majority of patients to independent living or to a healthcare setting providing less intensive care. Opportunities exist to promote increased patient satisfaction with care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine the association between non-adherence to long term chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) medications and COPD related emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations in patients with incident COPD, utilizing time varying measures of adherence as well as accounting for time-varying confounding impacted by prior adherence., Study Design and Setting: We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study between 2007-2017 among individuals aged 66 years and older with incident COPD using multiple linked administrative health databases from the province of Ontario, Canada. Adherence to COPD medications was measured using time varying proportion of days covered based on insurance claims for medications dispensed at community pharmacies. The parametric g-formula was used to assess the association between time-varying adherence (in the last 90-days) to COPD medications and risk of COPD related hospitalizations and ED visits while accounting for time varying confounding by COPD severity., Results: Overall, 60,251 individuals with incident COPD were included; mean age was 76 (SD 7) and 59% were male. Mean adherence over the entire follow-up was 23% (SD 0.3). There were 7248 (12%) COPD related ED visits (2.8 events per 100 person years [PY]) and 9188 (15%) COPD related hospitalizations (3.5 events per 100 PY). Compared to those with 0% 90-day adherence, those with adherence between 1-33% had a 19% decreased risk of COPD related ED visits (adjusted risk ratio[aRR]:0.81, 95% confidence interval [CI]:0.78-0.83), those with adherence between 34%-67% had a 18% decreased risk (aRR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.77-0.85) while those with 68%-100% 90-day adherence had a 63% increased risk of COPD related ED visits (aRR: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.47-1.78). Nearly identical results were obtained for COPD specific hospitalizations., Conclusion: After accounting for time varying confounding by COPD severity, the highest time varying 90-days adherence was associated with an increased risk of both COPD related ED visits and hospitalizations compared to the lowest adherence categories. Differences in COPD severity between adherence categories, perception of need for medication management in the higher adherence categories, and potential residual confounding makes it difficult to disentangle the independent effects of adherence from the severity of the condition itself., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Given growing hospital capacity pressures, persistent delayed discharges, and ongoing efforts to improve patient flow, the use of unconventional environments (newly created or repurposed areas for patient care) is becoming increasingly common. Despite this, little is known about individuals' experiences in providing or receiving care in these environments., Objectives: The objectives of this study were to: (1) describe the characteristics of three unconventional environments used to care for patients experiencing a delayed discharge, and (2) explore individuals' experiences with the three unconventional environments., Methods: This was a multi-method qualitative study of three unconventional environments in Ontario, Canada. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations. Participants included patients, caregivers, healthcare providers, and clinical managers who had experience with delayed discharges. In-person observations of two environments were conducted. Interviews were transcribed and notes from the observations were recorded. Data were coded and analyzed thematically., Results: Twenty-nine individuals participated. Three themes were identified for unconventional environments: (1) implications on the physical safety of patients; (2) implications on staffing models and continuity of care; and, (3) implications on team interactions and patient care. Participants discussed how the physical set-up of some unconventional spaces was not conducive to patient needs, especially those with cognitive impairment. Limited space made it difficult to maintain privacy and develop social relationships. However, the close proximity of team members allowed for more focused collaborations regarding patient care and contributed to staff fulfilment. A smaller, consistent care team and access to onsite physicians seemed to foster improved continuity of care., Conclusions: There is potential to learn from multi-stakeholder perspectives in unconventional environments to improve experiences and optimize patient care. Key considerations include keeping hallways and patient rooms clear, having communal spaces for activities and socialization, co-locating team members to improve interactions and access to resources, and ensuring a consistent care team., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Marcinow et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Team-based care is recognized as a foundational building block of high-performing primary care. The purpose of this study was to identify primary care practice characteristics associated with team functioning and examine whether there is relationship between team composition or size and team functioning. We sought to answer the following research questions: (1) are primary care practice characteristics associated with team functioning; and (2) does team composition or size influence team functioning. This cross-sectional correlational study was conducted in Fraser East, British Columbia, Eastern Ontario Health Unit, Ontario and Central Zone, Nova Scotia in Canada. Data were collected from primary care practices using an organization survey and the Team Climate Inventory (TCI) as a measure team functioning. The independent variables of interest were: physicians' payment model, internal clinic meetings to discuss clinical issues, care coordination through informal and ad hoc exchange, care coordination through electronic medical records and sharing clinic mission, values and objectives among health professionals. Potentially confounding variables were as follows: team size, composition, and practice panel size. A total of 63 practices were included in these analyses. The overall mean score of team climate was 73 (SD: 10.75) out of 100. Regression analyses showed that care coordination through human interaction and sharing the practice's mission, values, and objectives among health professionals were positively associated with higher functioning teams. Care coordination through electronic medical records and larger team size were negatively associated with team climate. This study provides baseline data on what practice characteristics are associated with highly functioning teams in Canada.

One of the most pressing challenges facing most health care systems is rising costs. As the population ages and the demand for health care services grows, there is a growing need to understand the drivers of these costs across systems. This paper attempts to address this gap by examining utilization and spending of the course of a year for two specific high-need high-cost patient types: a frail older person with a hip fracture and an older person with congestive heart failure and diabetes. Data on utilization and expenditure is collected across five health care settings (hospital, post-acute rehabilitation, primary care, outpatient specialty and drugs), in six countries (Canada (Ontario), France, Germany, Spain (Aragon), Sweden and the United States (fee for service Medicare) and used to construct treatment episode Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) that compare prices using baskets of goods from the different care settings. The treatment episode PPPs suggest other countries have more similar volumes of care to the US as compared to other standardization approaches, suggesting that US prices account for more of the differential in US health care expenditures. The US also differs with regards to the share of expenditures across care settings, with post-acute rehab and outpatient speciality expenditures accounting for a larger share of the total relative to comparators., Competing Interests: Declarations of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: The primary care sector is uniquely positioned to lead the coordination of providers and organizations across health and social care sectors. This study explores whether intra organizational (professional) integration within a primary care team might be related to inter organizational integration between primary care and other community partners involved in caring for complex patients., Methods: Two care coordination initiatives (Health Links) were selected - one led by a primary care team with a high level of intraorganizational integration as assessed by the Collaborative Practice Assessment Tool (CPAT), and the other led by a primary care team with a low level of intraorganizational integration. A case study design involving a social network approach was used to assess interorganizational integration across six types of relationships including regular contact, perceived level of integration, referrals, information sharing, joint care planning, and shared resources., Results: Compared to the high-CPAT led case, the low-CPAT led case had higher density (more ties among organizations) in terms of regular contact, integration, and sharing of resources, whereas the opposite was true for the referral, information sharing, and joint care planning networks. Network centralization (extent to which network activity is influenced by one or a group of organizations) was higher for the high-CPAT case compared to the low-CPAT case in the integration, referrals, and joint care planning networks, while the low-CPAT case had higher centralization with regard to regular contact, information sharing, and shared resources., Conclusion: The interplay between intra and interorganizational integration remains unclear. We found no consistent differences in the patterns of ties across the six types of networks examined between the two cases. Assessing changes in network metrics for different organizations in each case over time, and supplementing network findings through in-depth interviews with network members are key next steps to consider., Competing Interests: The authors have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s).)

Objective: This study explores differences in spending and utilization of health care services for an older person with frailty before and after a hip fracture., Data Sources: We used individual-level patient data from five care settings., Study Design: We compared utilization and spending of an older person aged older than 65 years for 365 days before and after a hip fracture across 11 countries and five domains of care as follows: acute hospital care, primary care, outpatient specialty care, post-acute rehabilitative care, and outpatient drugs. Utilization and spending were age and sex standardized.., Data Collection/extraction Methods: The data were compiled by the International Collaborative on Costs, Outcomes, and Needs in Care (ICCONIC) across 11 countries as follows: Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States., Principal Findings: The sample ranged from 1859 patients in Spain to 42,849 in France. Mean age ranged from 81.2 in Switzerland to 84.7 in Australia. The majority of patients across countries were female. Relative to other countries, the United States had the lowest inpatient length of stay (11.3), but the highest number of days were spent in post-acute care rehab (100.7) and, on average, had more visits to specialist providers (6.8 per year) than primary care providers (4.0 per year). Across almost all sectors, the United States spent more per person than other countries per unit ($13,622 per hospitalization, $233 per primary care visit, $386 per MD specialist visit). Patients also had high expenditures in the year prior to the hip fracture, mostly concentrated in the inpatient setting., Conclusion: Across 11 high-income countries, there is substantial variation in health care spending and utilization for an older person with frailty, both before and after a hip fracture. The United States is the most expensive country due to high prices and above average utilization of post-acute rehab care., (© 2021 The Authors. Health Services Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Health Research and Educational Trust.)

Objective: To compare within-country variation of health care utilization and spending of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and diabetes across countries., Data Sources: Patient-level linked data sources compiled by the International Collaborative on Costs, Outcomes, and Needs in Care across nine countries: Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States., Data Collection Methods: Patients were identified in routine hospital data with a primary diagnosis of CHF and a secondary diagnosis of diabetes in 2015/2016., Study Design: We calculated the care consumption of patients after a hospital admission over a year across the care pathway-ranging from primary care to home health nursing care. To compare the distribution of care consumption in each country, we use Gini coefficients, Lorenz curves, and female-male ratios for eight utilization and spending measures., Principal Findings: In all countries, rehabilitation and home nursing care were highly concentrated in the top decile of patients, while the number of drug prescriptions were more uniformly distributed. On average, the Gini coefficient for drug consumption is about 0.30 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.27-0.36), while it is, 0.50 (0.45-0.56) for primary care visits, and more than 0.75 (0.81-0.92) for rehabilitation use and nurse visits at home (0.78; 0.62-0.9). Variations in spending were more pronounced than in utilization. Compared to men, women spend more days at initial hospital admission (+5%, 1.01-1.06), have a higher number of prescriptions (+7%, 1.05-1.09), and substantially more rehabilitation and home care (+20% to 35%, 0.79-1.6, 0.99-1.64), but have fewer visits to specialists (-10%; 0.84-0.97)., Conclusions: Distribution of health care consumption in different settings varies within countries, but there are also some common treatment patterns across all countries. Clinicians and policy makers need to look into these differences in care utilization by sex and care setting to determine whether they are justified or indicate suboptimal care., (© 2021 Health Research and Educational Trust.)

Objective: This study explores variations in outcomes of care for two types of patient personas-an older frail person recovering from a hip fracture and a multimorbid older patient with congestive heart failure (CHF) and diabetes., Data Sources: We used individual-level patient data from 11 health systems., Study Design: We compared inpatient mortality, mortality, and readmission rates at 30, 90, and 365 days. For the hip fracture persona, we also calculated time to surgery. Outcomes were standardized by age and sex., Data Collection/extraction Methods: Data was compiled by the International Collaborative on Costs, Outcomes and Needs in Care across 11 countries for the years 2016-2017 (or nearest): Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States., Principal Findings: The hip sample across ranged from 1859 patients in Aragon, Spain, to 42,849 in France. Mean age ranged from 81.2 in Switzerland to 84.7 in Australia, and the majority of hip patients across countries were female. The congestive heart failure (CHF) sample ranged from 742 patients in England to 21,803 in the United States. Mean age ranged from 77.2 in the United States to 80.3 in Sweden, and the majority of CHF patients were males. Average in-hospital mortality across countries was 4.1%. for the hip persona and 6.3% for the CHF persona. At the year mark, the mean mortality across all countries was 25.3% for the hip persona and 32.7% for CHF persona. Across both patient types, England reported the highest mortality at 1 year followed by the United States. Readmission rates for all periods were higher for the CHF persona than the hip persona. At 30 days, the average readmission rate for the hip persona was 13.8% and 27.6% for the CHF persona., Conclusion: Across 11 countries, there are meaningful differences in health system outcomes for two types of patients., (© 2021 The Authors. Health Services Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Health Research and Educational Trust.)

Objective: The objective of this study was to explore cross-country differences in spending and utilization across different domains of care for a multimorbid persona with heart failure and diabetes., Data Sources: We used individual-level administrative claims or registry data from inpatient and outpatient health care sectors compiled by the International Collaborative on Costs, Outcomes, and Needs in Care (ICCONIC) across 11 countries: Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States (US)., Data Collection/extraction Methods: Data collected by ICCONIC partners., Study Design: We retrospectively analyzed age-sex standardized utilization and spending of an older person (65-90 years) hospitalized with a heart failure exacerbation and a secondary diagnosis of diabetes across five domains of care: hospital care, primary care, outpatient specialty care, post-acute rehabilitative care, and outpatient drugs., Principal Findings: Sample sizes ranged from n = 1270 in Spain to n = 21,803 in the United States. Mean age (standard deviation [SD]) ranged from 76.2 (5.6) in the Netherlands to 80.3 (6.8) in Sweden. We observed substantial variation in spending and utilization across care settings. On average, England spent $10,956 per person in hospital care while the United States spent $30,877. The United States had a shorter length of stay over the year (18.9 days) compared to France (32.9) and Germany (33.4). The United States spent more days in facility-based rehabilitative care than other countries. Australia spent $421 per person in primary care, while Spain (Aragon) spent $1557. The United States and Canada had proportionately more visits to specialist providers than primary care providers. Across almost all sectors, the United States spent more than other countries, suggesting higher prices per unit., Conclusion: Across 11 countries, there is substantial variation in health care spending and utilization for a complex multimorbid persona with heart failure and diabetes. Drivers of spending vary across countries, with the United States being the most expensive country due to high prices and higher use of facility-based rehabilitative care., (© 2021 The Authors. Health Services Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Health Research and Educational Trust.)

Background: Higher staffing levels in long-term care have been associated with better outcomes for residents in several landmark studies. However previous systematic reviews found mixed results, calling into question the effectiveness of higher levels of staff. With persistent concerns about quality, rising resident acuity, and a growing demographic of seniors requiring more services, understanding the relationship between quality and long-term care staffing is a growing concern., Objectives: This review considered the following question: What is the influence of nursing and personal care staffing levels (registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, and nursing assistant) and / or skill mix on long-term care residents, measured by quality of care indicators?, Design: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Protocols guided the report of this systematic review., Data Sources: Published articles focused on quality and nursing and personal care staffing in long-term care in peer-reviewed databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, and AGELINE) and several Cochrane databases to retrieve studies published between January 2008 and June 2020., Review Methods: A systematic review was conducted. 11,096 studies were identified, of which 34 were included in this review. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology checklist was used to evaluate study quality and risk of bias, and five quality measures were selected for in-depth analyses: pressure ulcers, hospitalizations, physical restraints, deficiencies and catherization., Results: This review confirms previous review findings that evidence on the relationships between quality and long-term care staffing level and skill mix, remain mixed. Higher staffing levels and skill mix generally supported better rather than worse outcomes. Significant and consistent findings were more evident when staffing levels were further analyzed by indicator and staffing category. For example, registered nurses were consistently associated with significantly fewer pressure ulcers, hospitalizations, and urinary tract infections. Few studies examined the impact of total nursing and personal care hours compared to the impact of specific categories or classes of nursing staff on outcomes., Conclusions: Evidence on the relationship between quality and long-term care staffing remains mixed, however some categories of nursing staff may be more effective at improving the quality of certain indicators. Study quality has improved minimally over the last decade. Although research continues to standardize units of measurement, and longitudinal and instrumental variable analyses are increasingly being used, very few studies controlled for endogeneity, conducted adequate risk-adjustment, and used resident-level data. Additional strides must still be made to improve the rigor of long-term care staffing research., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Competing Interests: Competing interests: We have read and understood BMJ policy on declaration of interests and have no relevant interests to declare.

Background: Small randomized trials demonstrated that a lower compared with higher dialysate temperature reduced the average drop in intradialytic blood pressure. Some observational studies demonstrated that a lower compared with higher dialysate temperature was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality. There is now the need for a large randomized trial that compares the effect of a low vs high dialysate temperature on major cardiovascular outcomes., Objective: The purpose of this study is to test the effect of outpatient hemodialysis centers randomized to (1) a personalized temperature-reduced dialysate protocol or (2) a standard-temperature dialysate protocol for 4 years on cardiovascular-related death and hospitalizations., Design: The design of the study is a pragmatic, registry-based, open-label, cluster randomized controlled trial., Setting: Hemodialysis centers in Ontario, Canada, were randomized on February 1, 2017, for a trial start date of April 3, 2017, and end date of March 31, 2021., Participants: In total, 84 hemodialysis centers will care for approximately 15 500 patients and provide over 4 million dialysis sessions over a 4-year follow-up., Intervention: Hemodialysis centers were randomized (1:1) to provide (1) a personalized temperature-reduced dialysate protocol or (2) a standard-temperature dialysate protocol of 36.5°C. For the personalized protocol, nurses set the dialysate temperature between 0.5°C and 0.9°C below the patient's predialysis body temperature for each dialysis session, to a minimum dialysate temperature of 35.5°C., Primary Outcome: A composite of cardiovascular-related death or major cardiovascular-related hospitalization (a hospital admission with myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, or ischemic stroke) captured in Ontario health care administrative databases., Planned Primary Analysis: The primary analysis will follow an intent-to-treat approach. The hazard ratio of time-to-first event will be estimated from a Cox model. Within-center correlation will be considered using a robust sandwich estimator. Observation time will be censored on the trial end date or when patients die from a noncardiovascular event., Trial Registration: www.clinicaltrials.gov; identifier: NCT02628366., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Dr Zager is the Medical Director for Dialysis Clinic Inc, which provided partial funding for Major Outcomes with Personalized Dialysate TEMPerature (MyTEMP). Dr Wald has received unrestricted research support from Baxter Healthcare. The remaining authors declare they have no other relevant interests., (© The Author(s) 2020.)

Identification and subsequent intervention of patients at risk of becoming High Cost Users (HCUs) presents the opportunity to improve outcomes while also providing significant savings for the healthcare system. In this paper, the 2016 HCU status of patients was predicted using free-form text data from the 2015 cumulative patient profiles within the electronic medical records of family care practices in Ontario. These unstructured notes make substantial use of domain-specific spellings and abbreviations; we show that word embeddings derived from the same context provide more informative features than pre-trained ones based on Wikipedia, MIMIC, and Pubmed. We further demonstrate that a model using features derived from aggregated word embeddings (EmbEncode) provides a significant performance improvement over the bag-of-words representation (82.48±0.35% versus 81.85±0.36% held-out AUROC, p = 3.2 × 10-4), using far fewer input features (5,492 versus 214,750) and fewer non-zero coefficients (1,177 versus 4,284). The future HCUs of greatest interest are the transitional ones who are not already HCUs, because they provide the greatest scope for interventions. Predicting these new HCU is challenging because most HCUs recur. We show that removing recurrent HCUs from the training set improves the ability of EmbEncode to predict new HCUs, while only slightly decreasing its ability to predict recurrent ones.

Background: The concept of "mechanism" is central to realist approaches to research, yet research teams struggle to operationalize and apply the concept in empirical research. Our large, interdisciplinary research team has also experienced challenges in making the concept useful in our study of the implementation of models of integrated community-based primary health care (ICBPHC) in three international jurisdictions (Ontario and Quebec in Canada, and in New Zealand)., Methods: In this paper we summarize definitions of mechanism found in realist methodological literature, and report an empirical example of a realist analysis of the implementation ICBPHC., Results: We use our empirical example to illustrate two points. First, the distinction between contexts and mechanisms might ultimately be arbitrary, with more distally located mechanisms becoming contexts as research teams focus their analytic attention more proximally to the outcome of interest. Second, the relationships between mechanisms, human reasoning, and human agency need to be considered in greater detail to inform realist-informed analysis; understanding these relationships is fundamental to understanding the ways in which mechanisms operate through individuals and groups to effect the outcomes of complex health interventions., Conclusions: We conclude our paper with reflections on human agency and outline the implications of our analysis for realist research and realist evaluation.

Objective: A small proportion of the population accounts for the majority of healthcare costs. Mental health and addiction (MHA) patients are consistently high-cost. We aimed to delineate factors amenable to public health action that may reduce high-cost use among a cohort of MHA clients in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan., Methods: We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study. Administrative health data from fiscal years (FY) 2009-2015, linked at the individual level, were analyzed (n = 129,932). The outcome of interest was ≥ 90th percentile of costs for each year under study ('persistent high-cost use'). Descriptive analyses were followed by logistic regression modelling; the latter excluded long-term care residents., Results: The average healthcare cost among study cohort members in FY 2009 was ~ $2300; for high-cost users it was ~ $19,000. Individuals with unstable housing and hospitalization(s) had increased risk of persistent high-cost use; both of these effects were more pronounced as comorbidities increased. Patients with schizophrenia, particularly those under 50 years old, had increased probability of persistent high-cost use. The probability of persistent high-cost use decreased with good connection to a primary care provider; this effect was more pronounced as the number of mental health conditions increased., Conclusion: Despite constituting only 5% of the study cohort, persistent high-cost MHA clients (n = 6455) accounted for ~ 35% of total costs. Efforts to reduce high-cost use should focus on reduction of multimorbidity, connection to a primary care provider (particularly for those with more than one MHA), young patients with schizophrenia, and adequately addressing housing stability.

Community-based primary health care describes a model of service provision that is oriented to the population health needs and wants of service users and communities, and has particular relevance to supporting the growing proportion of the population with multiple chronic conditions. Internationally, aspirations for community-based primary health care have stimulated local initiatives and influenced the design of policy solutions. However, the ways in which these ideas and influences find their way into policy and practice is strongly mediated by policy settings and institutional legacies of particular jurisdictions. This paper seeks to compare the key institutional and policy features of Ontario, Québec and New Zealand that shape the 'space available' for models of community-based primary health care to take root and develop. Our analysis suggests that two key conditions are the integration of relevant health and social sector organisations, and the range of policy levers that are available and used by governments. New Zealand has the most favourable conditions, and Ontario the least favourable. All jurisdictions, however, share a crucial barrier, namely the 'barbed-wire fence' that separates funding of medical and 'non-medical' primary care services, and the clear interests primary care doctors have in maintaining this fence. Moves in the direction of system-wide community-based primary health care require a gradual dismantling of this fence.

Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) levels and their determinants in those living in nursing homes are unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate different HRQOL domains as a function of the degree of cognitive impairment and to explore associations between them and possible determinants of HRQOL., Method: Five HRQOL domains using the Minimum Data Set - Health Status Index (MDS-HSI) were investigated in a large sample of nursing home residents depending on cognitive performance levels derived from the Cognitive Performance Scale. Large effect size associations between clinical variables and the different HRQOL domains were looked for., Results: HRQOL domains are impaired to variable degrees but with similar profiles depending on the cognitive performance level. Basic activities of daily living are a major factor associated with some but not all HRQOL domains and vary little with the degree of cognitive impairment., Limitations: This study is limited by the general difficulties related to measuring HRQOL in patients with cognitive impairment and the reduced number of variables considered among those potentially influencing HRQOL., Conclusion: HRQOL dimensions are not all linearly associated with increasing cognitive impairment in NH patients. Longitudinal studies are required to determine how the different HRQOL domains evolve over time in NH residents., (Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.)

Background and Objective: Health care use of children with medical complexity (CMC), such as those with neurologic impairment or other complex chronic conditions (CCCs) and those with technology assistance (TA), is not well understood. The objective of the study was to evaluate health care utilization and costs in a population-based sample of CMC in Ontario, Canada., Methods: Hospital discharge data from 2005 through 2007 identified CMC. Complete health system use and costs were analyzed over the subsequent 2-year period., Results: The study identified 15 771 hospitalized CMC (0.67% of children in Ontario); 10 340 (65.6%) had single-organ CCC, 1063 (6.7%) multiorgan CCC, 4368 (27.6%) neurologic impairment, and 1863 (11.8%) had TA. CMC saw a median of 13 outpatient physicians and 6 distinct subspecialists. Thirty-six percent received home care services. Thirty-day readmission varied from 12.6% (single CCC without TA) to 23.7% (multiple CCC with TA). CMC accounted for almost one-third of child health spending. Rehospitalization accounted for the largest proportion of subsequent costs (27.2%), followed by home care (11.3%) and physician services (6.0%). Home care costs were a much larger proportion of costs in children with TA. Children with multiple CCC with TA had costs 3.5 times higher than children with a single CCC without TA., Conclusions: Although a small proportion of the population, CMC account for a substantial proportion of health care costs. CMC make multiple transitions across providers and care settings and CMC with TA have higher costs and home care use. Initiatives to improve their health outcomes and decrease costs need to focus on the entire continuum of care.