Tracy Johnson

IntroductionCanadian Institute of Health Information and Public Health Agency of Canada combined analytical work for a dementia report. The report linked surveillance and administrative data to support policy makers, health system planners and public in understanding the prevalence of seniors with dementia and their interactions with the health care system. Objectives and ApproachDementia prevalence data from PHAC’s Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System was used as a denominator, and data from CIHI’s administrative databases was used as a numerator to calculate the statistics on interactions of seniors with dementia with the healthcare system. Examples of the measures reported by database include: Using DAD: Proportion of seniors with dementia who were hospitalized; Using NACRS: Proportion of seniors with dementia who visited emergency departments; Using CCRS: Proportion of seniors with dementia living in and outside of nursing homes; Using HCRS: Proportion of seniors with de...

IntroductionMany Canadians prefer to remain in the community at end-of-life, and to die at home. To do so, early and integrated palliative care (PC) is needed to provide individuals with care and support services across care settings. Measuring access to PC can help to evaluate progress over time. Objectives and ApproachThis presentation will show findings from our study on whether Canadian decedents had access to PC in the last year of life. Data from physician billings, drug claims, home care, long-term care and acute care were linked to identify decedents and PC service use. These data were also used to examine how PC may affect, or be affected by other interactions with the health system, including inpatient alternate level care days, admissions from long-term care, emergency department visits and stays in intensive care units. Gaps in data availability and quality will also be highlighted. ResultsAbout 70% of decedents were identified using administrative health data, although ...