Published plans and annual reports 2024–2025: Ministry of Long-Term Care

Ministry overview

Ministry’s vision

The Ministry of Long-Term Care (the “ministry”) is improving long-term care, so that every resident experiences the best possible quality of life, supported by safe, high-quality care.

The government understands that those in long-term care, and all Ontarians, want a health care system that's connected and convenient to access. The government is making health care more convenient for Ontarians by connecting them to the care they need, when and where they need it.

Long-term care plays a crucial role in this interconnected system. The ministry’s work to improve long-term care is built on four pillars: (1) connecting seniors with faster, more convenient access to the services they need; (2) hiring and retaining more staff; (3) building more modern, safe, comfortable long-term care homes than ever before; and (4) creating better accountability, enforcement, and transparency.

Ministry programs

Each of the ministry’s programs are geared towards improving long-term care and fall under one or more of the four pillars mentioned above.

Pillar 1: Connecting seniors with faster, more convenient access to the services they need

Continuum of care

The government is ensuring that every Ontarian is connected to the health care they need. Whether that person lives in a big city or a remote area in the North, whether they need care on a temporary or a continual basis, and whether their care needs are straightforward or complex, every Ontarian deserves the right care in the right place. This helps to strengthen all aspects of health care by making it easier for Ontarians to connect to the care they need. This includes long-term care.

The first pilot project is with Humber River Hospital in Toronto. Enhanced diagnostic services offered through Humber River Hospital will include:

Equipment and Training Fund

The Equipment and Training Fund was launched in October 2023. The fund is administered by Ontario Health (OH) and allows Ontario’s long-term care homes to apply for diagnostic equipment, supplies and training to support the management of conditions that most often lead to preventable hospital visits, such as urinary tract infections, falls, pneumonia and congestive heart failure.

Nurse-led outreach teams

Nurse-led outreach teams consist of specialized nurse practitioners and registered nurses who provide residents with convenient access to in-person and virtual consultations and care in the comfort of their long-term care home. As part of their service, they also work in partnership with emergency departments and long-term care homes to coordinate timely and rapid diagnostic services for residents.

Community paramedicine for long-term care

The government is also continuing to collaborate with health system partners to provide support to people on the long-term care home waitlist. Individuals who need long-term care services report they prefer to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. The Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care program (launched in 2020) helps seniors remain in their own homes by delivering the additional care they need, while also providing peace-of-mind for caregivers. The Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care program is now administered in all of Ontario’s 55 certified land paramedic service areas, making it available to eligible seniors across Ontario.

Behavioural Specialized Units (BSUs)

Another way to make care more connected and convenient is by expanding the province’s BSUs. BSUs provide vulnerable long-term care home residents who have complex care needs, like dementia, with safe, quality care in the comfort of a long-term care home instead of a hospital. Specialized care in a BSU is required due to the frequency, severity, or level of risk that an individual’s behaviours pose towards themselves, co-residents, visitors, or staff members. A BSU also offers increased and specialized staffing, a tailored environment, focussed behavioural assessment, and enhanced care planning.

Local Priorities Fund

The Local Priorities Fund projects help residents get the specialized care they need in their long-term care home without having to go to the emergency room or be admitted to a hospital. The Local Priorities Fund supports initiatives including specialized staff and training as well as specialized equipment such as bariatric beds, lifts, and diagnostic equipment.

Other projects supported by the fund aid in the admission of people into homes who no longer require acute care in hospital, but who have complex needs that can be difficult to accommodate without specialized services and supports. The Local Priorities Fund is extremely flexible, allowing long-term care homes to access support for smaller initiatives, even down to the individual level.

Pillar 2: Hiring and retaining more staff

In December 2020, the ministry released A better place to live, a better place to work: Ontario’s long-term care staffing plan. This four-year plan is based on the results of the Long-Term Care Staffing Study, released in July 2020; the interim recommendations from Ontario’s Long-Term Care COVID‑19  Commission; and the Gillese Inquiry final report.

The plan focused on six key areas of action:

1. increasing staffing levels
2. disrupting, accelerating, and increasing education and training pathways
3. supporting ongoing staff development
4. improving working conditions
5. providing effective and accountable leadership
6. measuring success

A central component of this plan is to increase the number of hours of direct care provided by nurses and Personal Support Workers (PSWs) to a system-level average of four hours per resident, per day by March 31, 2025.

To implement this plan, the government committed to investing up to $4.9 billion by 2024–2025 to hire and retain thousands of nurses and PSWs in long-term care. In addition, this funding supported a 20% increase (to a system-level average of 36 minutes per resident, per day) in direct care time by allied health professionals (AHPs), such as resident support personnel, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and social workers by March 31, 2023.

Additionally, up to 2,000 nurses will be added to the long-term sector by 2025–26 through two programs. The first is the Bridging Educational Grant in Nursing (BEGIN) initiative, jointly offered by the Ministry of Long-Term Care, the Ministry of Health, and the Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario (RPNAO). The BEGIN program provides financial support to PSWs and nurses to advance their careers. The other program is the Nursing Program Transformation in Ontario’s Colleges, jointly offered by the Ministry of Long-Term Care, the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, and Colleges Ontario. It introduces hyFlex (for example, a combination of online and in-person) learning models in practical nursing and Bachelor of Science in Nursing programs to provide students with the flexibility to learn per their individual schedules. The program also provides up to $6,000 per year in financial support to internationally-trained nurses to gain the credentials required to work in Ontario.

Pillar 3: Building modern, safe, comfortable homes

The government is investing $6.4 billion towards building 58,000 new and upgraded long-term care beds across the province by 2028. This includes a $3.7 billion investment, beginning in 2024–2025, on top of the historic $2.7 billion invested since spring 2019. The funding is being used to add new capacity and upgrade older beds to modern design standards. To this end, 4,582 new and upgraded beds are open, 13,268 new and upgraded beds are under construction, and 354 beds are approved to start construction. This supports the government’s goal of ending hallway health care, addressing growing waitlists, and ensuring that every resident experiences the best possible quality of life, supported by safe, high-quality care.

Securing financing is a long-standing development challenge faced by the not-for-profit long-term care sector. The Not-For-Profit Loan Guarantee Program is making it easier for non-municipal, not-for-profit homes to secure development loans from Infrastructure Ontario (IO). Enabling IO lending reduces not-for-profit operators’ borrowing costs by leveraging the borrowing power of the province. It also decreases the interest rate risk during the mortgage period through a favourable interest rate for 25 years.

Increasing capacity in the not-for-profit sector also helps ensure Ontarians have access to a range of choices and locations for their long-term care home needs. To increase capital lending to public hospitals for the purpose of long-term care bed development, the ministry negotiated an additional unique guarantee program through a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ontario Financing Authority for eligible hospital-based, long-term care development projects.

Pillar 4: Creating better accountability, enforcement, and transparency

The health, safety, and well-being of long-term care residents is the highest priority for the ministry. Fostering a culture of continuous quality improvement is paramount to improving resident outcomes and supporting a sustained high-performing system. An efficient and effective inspections system is central to fixing long-term care and ensuring safe homes and services for home residents. The ministry continually assesses information and re-prioritizes inspections daily based on harm, or risk of harm to residents.

In January 2024, the government announced the creation of a new long-term care Investigations Unit. The investigators’ specialized training allows them to lay provincial charges for 11 offenses under the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021. Prosecutions that arise from recommendations made by investigators could result in fines and even imprisonment. While offence provisions existed in previous legislation, they were enforced differently, and inspectors were limited to the actions they could take when non-compliance was found. This new unit — and with its enhanced powers — strengthens Ontario’s long-term care inspection and enforcement program.

The investigators are empowered as Provincial Offences Officers, and can investigate allegations such as:

• failing to protect a resident from abuse or neglect
• repeated and ongoing non-compliance
• failing to comply with ministry inspector’s orders
• suppressing or falsifying mandatory reports
• negligence of corporate directors

While the new unit will enhance enforcement and accountability through reactive measures, it will also act as a proactive deterrent to improve compliance and ensure resident safety.

Another important aspect to increase accountability and transparency is by amplifying the voices of residents and their families and caregivers and listening to their insights and experiences. The Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 requires that at least once a year, every long-term care home conducts a survey of residents, families, and caregivers to measure their experience with the home. Homes must make every reasonable effort to act on the survey results to improve the home.

The Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 also requires every home to implement a continuous quality improvement initiative, which must include an interdisciplinary quality improvement committee for the home and a report on the continuous quality improvement initiative for each fiscal year published on its website. The committee is intended to support an ongoing culture shift in long-term care that encourages continuous quality improvement through collaboration between the long-term care homes’ staff and leadership as well as representatives from the Residents’ and Family Councils. Among its responsibilities, the committee makes recommendations regarding priority areas for quality improvement in the home. Among other things, the report must describe the home’s priority areas for quality improvement and provide the results of the survey of residents, their families and caregivers, and actions taken based on those results.

Another step the government took to improve transparency was to launch the Long-Term Care Homefinder website. It provides information to help people decide if long-term care is the best option for them, and if so, how to choose a home, apply and move in. Above all, it features a search tool that prospective residents and their families can use to find and compare long-term care homes across the province. Each long-term care home has a profile page with helpful information about wait lists, the number of beds, previous inspection reports, contact information, and more.

2024–2025 Strategic plan - Looking forward

As Ontario’s population of seniors continues to grow, it is more important than ever that we continue building a health care system where services are connected and convenient to access, with people receiving the right care in the right place.

It is within this context that the government is continuing to advance its plan to fix long-term care. In 2024–2025, the ministry is planning to take the following actions, aiming for an integrated system where long-term care home residents receive high-quality care.

Pillar 1: Connecting seniors with faster, more convenient access to the services they need

The government is working to integrate care across the health system so that every Ontarian receives the right care in the right place — whether in a long-term care home, a hospital, or at home. This interconnected approach will help improve quality of care and preserves hospital capacity.

Additional strategic actions planned under this pillar include:

• Investing up to $21.36 million to continue supporting faster and more convenient access to diagnostic services to reduce avoidable transfers to the emergency department. This includes the continued investment for successful programs launched last year, such as the Equipment and Training Fund, as well as new innovative programs to support long-term care residents.
• $10.15 million in new funding in 2024–2025 for Behavioural Specialized Units (BSUs) for the continued operation of 51 BSU beds established in 2023–2024 and to increase BSU bed capacity by 210 beds over three years to help alleviate hospital capacity pressures. BSUs offer transitional care support for long-term care residents with more complex behaviours that are not manageable in their current settings.
• $11.26 million in new base funding to hire additional specialized Behavioural Supports Ontario (BSO) staff to support residents with responsive behaviours, growing the total BSO investment to $95 million from $84 million.
• $0.18 million in new funding for the continued operation of the BSO Provincial Coordinating Office (PCO) to enable centralized BSO and BSU program supports. Centralized BSO program supports are delivered by BSO PCO which is responsible for supporting accountability and sustainability of BSO services. A key component of BSO’s success is the centralized standardization of tools and practices, qualitative improvement initiatives, knowledge exchange, and collection of BSO program data provided by the BSO PCO.

Pillar 2: Hiring and retaining more staff

The Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 sets out system-level targets for average hours of direct care provided to residents of long-term care homes. This requires the training and hiring of thousands of PSWs and nurses, so that residents can receive the level of care they need and deserve. The government is investing up to $4.9 billion to help hire and train PSWs and nurses to work in long-term care. This investment is helping the government increase the amount of direct daily care residents receive.

Strategic actions planned for 2024–2025 under this pillar include:

• Investing up to $1.82 billion to continue increasing or sustaining funding levels for direct care of residents and support the achievement of the provincewide system-level average direct care targets set out in the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021. This represents a $571 million increase over last year.
• An increase of about $353 million to long-term care homes for their annual Level of Care (LOC) operating funding starting in 2024–2025 – representing a 6.6% increase to the LOC per diem from 2023–2024.
• Investing up to $4.94 million to support Humber College’s Learn and Earn Accelerated Program for Long-Term Care, and up to $2.5 million for the recently announced French Learn & Earn program with Collège Boréal to train PSWs.
• Investing $3.1 million annually with the Ontario Centres of Learning, Research and Innovation (CLRIs) in Long-Term Care (LTC) to enhance quality of care in the long-term care sector through education, research, innovation, evidence-based service delivery and design, and knowledge transfer.
• Also investing $4.0 million under the Personal Support Worker Education Fund to develop and enhance the PSW workforce and $1.0 million under the Communication at End-of-Life Fund to increase knowledge, competency, and applicable skills in the delivery of end-of-life care. The ministry obtained approval through the 2024–2025 Strategic Planning Process of $15.0 million over three years to ensure continuity of these training programs and to expand existing supports to the long-term care sector.

Pillar 3: Building modern, safe, comfortable homes

The government is investing and innovating to build new and upgraded beds the province needs—in both urban and rural communities—so that the province has the capacity to address the need for long-term care spaces now, and in the future. The government continues to make progress towards its commitment of building 58,000 new and upgraded beds to modern design standards across the province by 2028, with over 18,000 beds that are either open, under construction, or have approval to start construction.

To get more long-term care homes built faster, Ontario is extending funding of up to $35 per bed, per day to the existing construction funding subsidy (CFS) for eligible recipients. Eligible not for profit applicants will also be able to convert up to $15 per bed, per day of the supplemental funding into construction grant payable at the start of construction to increase the projects’ upfront equity and enable applicants to secure financing. This fixed, time-limited funding will help address challenges due to escalating construction costs and borrowing rate increases which prevent many operators from advancing to the construction phase. This funding increase means that eligible projects, representing thousands of new and redeveloped long-term care beds, will be able to be built more quickly.

Pillar 4: Creating better accountability, enforcement, and transparency

In addition to strengthening the inspections and enforcement programs, the ministry has announced a number of other initiatives to improve resident safety and security. For example, the government is merging and extending the existing three-year Medication Safety Technology Program with the Clinical Decision Support Tools program. The consolidated fund, called the Integrated Technology Solutions program, will invest close to $70 million over the next two years to enhance medication management and safety, access clinical decision support tools, and help long-term care homes meet their unique technological and digital solutions needs.

As part of the 2024 budget, the government remains committed to supporting the third phase of the Compliance Assistance and Regulatory Enforcement System (CARES). The project involves a software system primarily used by Long-Term Care Inspection Branch Inspectors to inspect long-term care homes to ensure compliance with the legislation and regulation, and to safeguard resident rights, safety, security, and quality of life. Phase 3 is currently underway with a go-live date of early 2025, which includes changes to the LTCHomes.net platform and the Critical Incident System used by homes for reporting purposes.

Detailed financial information

Combined operating and capital summary by vote

Appendix – Part I

Annual report: 2023–2024 results

Long-term care is a top priority for the Ontario government. That’s why in 2019, the government created a stand-alone ministry dedicated to long-term care. In the five years since, the government has made significant progress fixing the long-term care system, including implementing a new governing framework for long-term care services in Ontario. The Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 and Ontario Regulation 246/22. This work continued in 2023–2024, as the government made unprecedented investments, launched innovative programs, and made continuous refinements to the governing framework to improve long-term care so that every long-term care resident experiences the best possible quality of life, supported by safe, high-quality care.

Pillar 1: Connecting seniors with faster, more convenient access to the services they need

Local Priorities Fund

In August 2022, the government announced an investment of $20 million to launch the new Local Priorities Fund, administered by Ontario Health for the 2022–2023 fiscal year. In April 2023, the government expanded the program with an additional $15 million for a total of $35 million in 2023–2024. Local Priorities Fund projects help residents get the specialized care they need in their long-term care home without having to go to the emergency room or be admitted to a hospital. Some projects also support the admission of people into homes who no longer require acute care in a hospital setting but have complex needs that can be difficult to accommodate without specialized care, services, and supports.

Plan to stay open: Health system stability and recovery

On August 18, 2022, the Ontario government introduced the Plan to Stay Open: Health System Stability and Recovery, which includes amendments to the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 through the More Beds, Better Care Act, 2022. It includes a suite of interconnected actions that aim to facilitate the admission of eligible Alternate Level of Care (ALC) patients into a long-term care home that can better meet their needs. This legislation helps ensure that patients who require hospital treatment can get the treatment, surgeries, and hospital services they need when they need it. It also helps ensure that ALC patients receive care in a more suitable setting, that offers a better quality of life while they wait for their preferred long-term care home.

The funding from 2023–2024 included a number of investments such as:

• $35 million to expand the Local Priorities Fund, administered by Ontario Health, to support timely interventions based on community needs
• $10 million to support Behavioural Supports Ontario so the program can continue to improve services
• $3.24 million to Baycrest hospital for the continued operation of the Virtual Behavioural Medicine program

Continuum of care

The Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care Program was launched in five communities in 2020, and expanded in 2021, to include all 55 certified paramedic services in the province, making it available to all eligible seniors across Ontario.

As of October 2023, the Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care Program has provided care to more than 48,000 individuals in their homes and continues to hold a 98% satisfaction rating among clients, caregivers and other health care providers associated with the program.

In 2021, the government announced an expansion of Behavioural Specialized Units (BSUs), which provide vulnerable long-term care residents with complex care needs like dementia with safe, quality care in the comfort of a long-term care home instead of a hospital. Specialized care in a BSU is required due to the frequency, severity, or level of risk that a person’s responsive behaviours pose towards themselves, co-residents, visitors, or staff members. A BSU offers specialized and increased staffing, a tailored environment, focussed behavioural assessment and enhanced care planning. In January 2024, the government announced that it was investing nearly $2.5 million to create three new BSUs at long-term care homes in Etobicoke, Timmins, and Brampton. The three new BSUs, with 51 specialized beds, build on the government’s previous investment of 141 specialized beds in seven existing BSUs at other locations throughout the province. An additional $3 million will fund improvements to BSU service delivery and train BSU staff in all 21 designated BSUs across the province.

Pillar 2: Hiring and retaining more staff

Recruiting more personal support workers (PSWs) is part of the province’s Your Health plan to connect long-term care residents to more hours of direct care and expand home care services.

Historic progress was made this year to improve staffing in Ontario’s long-term care homes. The government continued to hire and train PSWs, nurses, and other health care workers for the long-term care sector through several programs.

In March 2023, as part of the A better place to live, a better place to work: Ontario’s long-term care staffing plan, the government announced investments of up to $1.25 billion in 2023–2024 to help hire and retain nurses, PSWs, and allied health professionals in Ontario long-term care homes and increase direct care time and the achievement of the system-level average targets. This investment builds off a $270 million investment made in 2021–2022 and a $673 million investment in 2022–2023.

In November 2023, the government announced an investment of more than $300 million, over three years, in a new incentive program to help thousands of people launch careers as PSWs in long-term care homes and in the home and community care sector. The incentive offers up to $25,400 to students and recent graduates of PSW education programs.

The government also continues to enhance resident access to social support services provided by registered social workers, social service workers and other allied health professionals through a three-year almost $20 million, investment.

Originally implemented in fall 2021, the government continues to provide a $10 million annual fund to long-term care homes through the Supporting Professional Growth Fund. The fund supplements the ongoing education and training costs of staff working in long-term care homes that have direct impact on long-term care home residents. To address growth in staffing and expansion through bed development, the ministry announced an additional, one-time fund of $2.61 million in 2023–2024.

In addition, the government announced over $100 million to add up to an additional 2,000 nurses to the long-term care sector by 2025–26. This funding, launched in 2021, enabled the creation of two innovative programs:

• The first is the Nursing Program Transformation in Ontario’s Colleges initiative, jointly offered by the Ministry of Long-Term Care, the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, and Colleges Ontario. This program will increase access to nursing programs at publicly-assisted colleges through the development of new, innovative practical nursing and Bachelor of Science programs and bridging pathways.
• The second is the BEGIN Initiative: Bridging Educational Grant in Nursing, jointly offered by the Ministry of Long-Term Care, the Ministry of Health, and the Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario. The program provides financial support to PSWs and RPNs so they can pursue further education to become registered practical nurses and registered nurses respectively.

In 2022, the Ministry of Long-Term Care partnered with Humber College to pilot the Learn & Earn Accelerated Program for Personal Support Workers in Long-Term Care. The program provides existing long-term care home employees (such as resident support aides) the opportunity to upskill and transition into a PSW role using an accelerated online training module. The program was expanded in 2023 for an additional three years, targeting training for up to 600 PSWs working in long-term care homes by 2025–26. Additionally, in March 2024, the government announced an investment of up to $2.5 million over two years to expand the program to French-speaking long-term care staff. Collège Boréal will train three cohorts of up to 30 participants, for a total of up to 90 PSW students by 2024–2025.

In January 2024, the government announced a $94.5 million investment, over three years, to extend the Preceptor Resource and Education Program for Long-Term Care (PREP LTC). Since its launch in 2021, the program has helped 500 long-term care homes provide clinical placements for over 17,000 nursing and PSW students. With the new investment, the program now aims to train more than 3,000 new preceptors and support 31,000 new clinical placements by 2027.

As part of the same announcement, the government committed to investing nearly $11 million over three years to expand Living Classrooms, a program that helps students train to become PSWs on-site in local long-term care homes. With this investment, the program will double the number of living classrooms from 20 to 40, which will support the training of up to 1,300 new PSWs by 2026.

Providing nutritious food is important to residents’ quality of life. As part of the overall increase of 2.4% in the level of care funding provided to the sector in 2023–2024, the Ontario government invested over $32 million (representing a 9.7% increase) in nutritional support funding for long-term care homes. This 9.7% increase supports long-term care homes in managing increased food costs, as well as ‘hidden’ food inflation not captured in the official data to enable long-term care homes to better provide residents with safe and appropriate food and nutrition services that align with their plans of care and contribute to better health and quality of life outcomes.

In addition, in July 2023, as part of the Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, which prioritizes making it easier for Ontarians to connect to the care they need, when and where they need it, the Ministry of Health introduced new, “As of Right” exemptions. These exemptions allow qualified out-of-province physicians, nurses, medical laboratory technologists, and respiratory therapists registered in other Canadian jurisdictions to work in Ontario’s public hospitals and long-term care homes, without having to first register with one of Ontario’s health regulatory colleges. This reduces administrative barriers associated with the registration process that can delay an individual’s ability to practice in Ontario’s health system.

Pillar 3: Building safe, modern, and comfortable homes

In November 2022, the Ontario government announced a time-limited increase to the Construction Funding Subsidy, which helped support 67 eligible projects start construction between April 1, 2022, and August 31, 2023. These projects will receive an additional construction subsidy of up to $35 per bed, per day for 25 years.

As of March 2024, the ministry has 110 projects open, under construction, or approved to construct for a total of 18,204 beds:

• twenty-seven projects have opened, which includes 2,246 new and 2,336 upgraded long-term care beds across the province
• seventy-eight projects are under construction, which includes 6,861 new and 6,407 upgraded long-term care beds across the province
• five projects are approved to start construction, which includes 169 new and 185 upgraded long-term care beds across the province

The government completed four new long-term care homes built under the Accelerated Build Pilot Program. Through this program, 1,272 long-term care spaces were built in three hospital-owned properties:

• Lakeridge Gardens, with 320 new long-term care beds, was developed by Lakeridge Health in Ajax and opened in March 2022.
• Humber Meadows, with 320 new long-term care beds, was developed by Humber River Hospital in Toronto and opened in May 2023.
• Two homes, collectively called Wellbrook Place, were developed by Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, and opened in November 2023 — one of these homes has 312 beds and the other has 320 new beds for a total of 632 beds.

Pillar 4: Creating Better Accountability, Enforcement, and Transparency

In 2021, the government committed to investing an additional $72.3 million over three years to increase enforcement capacity. Supported by this investment, the government doubled the number of inspectors in the field completing on-site inspections and responding to complaints, which allows issues to be resolved more quickly and helps ensure that every long-term care resident lives with dignity in a safe environment.

In January 2024, the government announced the creation of a new, 10-person, Investigations Unit. The investigators’ specialized training allows them to lay provincial charges for 11 offenses under the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021. Prosecutions that arise from recommendations made by investigators could result in fines and even imprisonment. Offence provisions existed in previous legislation, but were enforced in a different manner, and inspectors were limited to the actions they could take when non-compliance was found. While the new unit will enhance enforcement and accountability through reactive measures, it will also act as a proactive deterrent to improve compliance and ensure resident safety.

Key performance indicators

The Ministry of Long-Term Care is committed to improving long-term care in Ontario. A key part of this is measuring the province’s progress on key performance indicators. Below are some key performance indicators related to government-directed and ministry-identified priorities that the ministry tracks annually.

Outcome measure #1 — Median wait time from long-term care application to placement in days

From December 2022 through December 2023, wait times decreased by 9 days. The ministry, in collaboration with Ontario Health and long-term care licensees, re-opened 501 short stay convalescent and 151 respite program beds. By making more beds available for admissions, the ministry maximized existing long-term care capacity and reduced wait times.

Outcome measure #2 — Percentage of long-term care beds classified as "new” by structural bed classification.

As of February 2024, 54% of long-term care spaces were classified as new. Between April 2023 and April 2024, 10 projects have been completed, opening more than 2,100 beds.

Outcome measure #3 — Average hours of direct care (PSWs, and nurses) per long-term care home resident per day in Ontario

The Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 establishes a system-level target average of four hours of daily direct care provided by PSWs and nurses per resident, per day by March 31, 2025.

The Ministry has achieved its first and second year targets and is making progress towards fulfilling the commitment to increasing the average daily direct care and will continue to publicly report on staffing targets in accordance with Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021.

Outcome measure #4 — The number of long-term care homes found not to be in compliance with an order on follow-up.

The Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 included several changes designed to enhance operator accountability and give inspectors more effective tools to enhance enforcement and reduce the number of recurring compliance orders.

The target was to reduce the number of homes found not to be in compliance with a follow-up order to 5.5% of all long-term care homes.

In 2023, the target was met. The Ministry will continue to monitor and provide strong oversight of long-term care homes to ensure residents are protected.

Outcome measure #5 — Number of proactive long-term care home inspections

The government launched a new and improved proactive inspections program in long-term care homes. This program will ensure there are enough inspectors to visit each long-term care home by end of 2025, while at the same time continuing to inspect critical incident complaints.

The ministry met its target of completing a Proactive Compliance Inspection in 50% of long-term care homes by March of 2024.