Behavioural symptoms improved | HQCA Focus

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Behavioural symptoms improved

Percentage of residents whose adverse behavioural symptoms improved between assessments. (see data dictionary)

Alberta Health Services, Analytics. “All 35 QIs by province/zone/facility”. (2019). [Dashboards showing RAI quality indicators, by province, zone, and site, by quarter]. AHS Tableau Reporting Platform. Retrieved from https://tableau.ahs.ca.

What do you think?

  • Looking at these results over time, are there any trends?
  • Looking at these results over time and between zones, are there differences?
  • After selecting a facility, are the site results changing over time? How do the most recent quarter results compare to the provincial and zone results?
  • When comparing sites with similarities like zone, setting (e.g., urban or rural), operator type (e.g., private), and size, how are the results different? What factors could account for these differences?

Understanding "behavioural symptoms improved"

Adverse behavioural symptoms may include confusion, agitation, or aggression. These symptoms can reflect a resident’s discomfort, and can be caused by many things. For example, symptoms such as nausea, shortness of breath (dyspnea), and pain or features of the social (e.g., styles of communication) and physical environment (e.g., noise) can trigger these adverse behavioural symptoms.

Treating the cause of the confusion, agitation, or aggression can help improve or reduce adverse behavioural symptoms.

Considerations when viewing the results:

When thinking about this quality indicator, providers and leaders can consider a number of things to better understand and improve these results. Some questions they could ask before taking action include:

  • What are some of the common causes for adverse behavioural symptoms? How could these causes be reduced or avoided for residents?
  • How could a site make a resident feel more “at home” and comfortable in their new environment or offer care activities that could reduce adverse behavioural symptoms?

Alberta Quality Matrix for Health

The Health Quality Council of Alberta uses the Alberta Quality Matrix for Health as a way of organizing information and thinking around the complexity of the healthcare system. This measure can be used as input to assess long term care’s performance in these dimensions of quality: Acceptability, Effectiveness, and Safety.

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