Wired for care: a cross-sectional survey protocol of health information technology, resilience and performance in Canadian long-term care homes.

INTRODUCTION: Canadian long-term care (LTC) homes have faced long-standing challenges with quality of care, staffing and resource limitations. In Ontario, specifically, there has been increased focus on resilience and performance in LTC homes given the burden that the COVID-19 pandemic presented (eg, highest number of resident deaths due to COVID-19 across Canada, staffing crisis). Nevertheless, little is known about the current practices and operational state of LTC homes in the province and limited data are collected on Ontario's LTC homes at the organisational level and on the factors that may contribute to their resilience and improved performance. We propose a research protocol that aims to: (1) assess the organisational characteristics and resources in LTC homes in Ontario; and (2) support an in-depth analysis of the relationship between organisational characteristics and health information technology (HIT) resources, resilience and performance for preparedness and system strengthening.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: All LTC homes in Ontario will be invited to participate in a cross-sectional survey to assess their organisational characteristics and HIT resources and investigate their resilience and performance. In the absence of a complete and detailed list of LTC homes in Ontario, our research team extracted publicly available data from multiple sources to develop a comprehensive list of all LTC homes in Ontario with relevant administrative contact information. This consolidated list will be used in the data collection stage. HIT indices will also be developed for electronic medical records and assistive technology to assess LTC homes' digital capabilities and level of information technology maturity. Exploratory factor analysis will be conducted to identify the underlying factor structure of the measured variables and develop composite measures of digital capabilities/HIT maturity, of resilience and performance. Multivariate analysis will be conducted to examine the relationships between organisational characteristics/HIT use and organisational performance, while controlling for resilience.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study received ethics approval from the University of Ottawa Research Ethics Board (S-06-25-11678). The results of this research will be submitted to relevant peer-reviewed journals and presented at professional and academic conferences. A one-page executive summary of the results will also be shared with the study participants and the two LTC associations in Ontario (ie, Ontario Long-Term Care Association and AdvantAge).