Based on its experience in Ontario, ACE reminds people to keep some basic questions in mind:
Who has the right to decide where you go?
In Ontario, only the patient or his/her legally authorized substituted decision-maker can decide. The hospital personnel do not have any authority over the admission process and cannot set their own rules about admission to long term care. Does your province have any laws about who directs the admission process? What is the authority of the hospital personnel, if any, in that law?
What are your rights about your choice of long term care facility?
In Ontario, many hospitals have “first available bed” policies that require a patient ready for discharge to accept the first available bed in any long-term care home. However, the law in Ontario states that a person may apply to up to three long term care homes they want to live in. None of these need be a home that the hospital personnel want the patient to select.
ACE cautions people in other provinces to ask whether there are similar laws governing choice and if not, whether the hospital policies are in fact binding. At the very least, have you been given a copy of these policies and have you read them closely? Is the hospital staff actually following them?
Are hospitals allowed to charge daily rates if you refuse to take the first available bed?
In Ontario, the maximum that a hospital is entitled to charge a person who is waiting in hospital for placement is the approximate amount the person would pay in a long-term care home and is substantially less than what has sometimes been quoted.
What is the law in respect to charges that a hospital may make in your province if you are a patient awaiting transfer to a long term care facility?
As a final word, Meadus reminds us: “The long-term care facility where the person is admitted to from hospital is often the last home the senior has. It is therefore important to ensure that they are placed in accordance with their care needs and the law, and to ensure that they are not forced into a place where they do not want to live.”
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