Home Care

In a health region, home care refers to the business functions of providing service or assistance, by an approved service provider, to community-based clients. A Home Care Administration system facilitates the flow of information across the continuum of care and facilitates the execution of the business functions of home care programs. The Home Care Administration System is implemented for use across the region. If required, client demographic information will be provided using an electronic interface from the regional Client Patient Index/Registation System. In the future, the Home Care Administration System will be able to transmit home care service event information using an electronic interface to other departmental systems, the Clinical Viewer system and the provincial home care assessments repository.

The Home Care Administration System is used by 778 staff in 11 health regions to better schedule and manage the care of over 14,000 clients, recording information on over 1.3 million home visits.

MDS Home Care is the tool used to conduct home care functional assessments in the Prince Albert Parkland and Cypress health regions. MDS-HC has been developed by interRAI in an effort to create a common assessment language for individuals receiving community-based services.

In 2006-07, Heartland and Sun Country health regions began planning for the implementation of MDS Home Care, which is scheduled in 2007-08.