Assessing the use of the input of care users in long-term care homes during 2020-2023 in the Netherlands: an exploratory study.

BACKGROUND

Healthcare inspectorates are increasingly expected to involve care users during assessments of long-term care (LTC). Although healthcare inspectorates promise to improve the involvement of care users' experiences, they struggle to address this expectation. This study aims to explore the advancements in the participation of care users or informal caregivers during assessments of LTC homes, as reported in the Dutch Health and Youth Care Inspectorate reports in the Netherlands between 2020 and 2023.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to explore the advancements in the participation of care users or informal caregivers during assessments of LTC homes in the Netherlands between 2020 and 2023.

METHODS

This study comprised 273 publicly accessible inspection reports concerning LTC homes from 2020 to 2023. The frequency with which care users or informal caregivers were cited as sources of information was examined and compared across years.

RESULTS

The results show a significant increase in reporting the use of positive citations from care users for 3 items out of 16 of the assessment instrument between 2020 and 2023. In particular, significant differences in positive citations from care users were found only for items regarding the theme of attention to person-centred care.

CONCLUSIONS

The study concludes that although care users are particularly increasingly cited in inspection reports on LTC homes, there is still room for increasing the incorporation of care users' experiences in the reports on assessing quality of care in LTC homes.