Katherine A P Zagrodney, Emily C King, Deborah Simon, Kathryn A Nichol, Sandra M McKay
{"title":"Economic Evidence for Home and Community Care Investment: The Case for Ontario Personal Support Workers' Wage Parity.","authors":"Katherine A P Zagrodney, Emily C King, Deborah Simon, Kathryn A Nichol, Sandra M McKay","doi":"10.12927/hcpol.2023.27161","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The home and community care (HCC) sector is in a health human resource crisis. Particularly concerning is the shortage of personal support workers (PSWs) who provide the majority of HCC. This paper outlines a strategy to mitigate the HCC PSW shortage by applying appropriate funding to HCC and focusing on equal pay between HCC and institutional long-term care facilities' PSWs. Using publicly available data, our calculations estimate substantial government cost-savings from investing in HCC PSWs to increase HCC capacity. Beyond the economic evidence, how such investments would benefit those seeking care are also highlighted.</p>","PeriodicalId":39389,"journal":{"name":"Healthcare Policy","volume":"19 1","pages":"23-31"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10519337/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Healthcare Policy","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.12927/hcpol.2023.27161","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Medicine","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The home and community care (HCC) sector is in a health human resource crisis. Particularly concerning is the shortage of personal support workers (PSWs) who provide the majority of HCC. This paper outlines a strategy to mitigate the HCC PSW shortage by applying appropriate funding to HCC and focusing on equal pay between HCC and institutional long-term care facilities' PSWs. Using publicly available data, our calculations estimate substantial government cost-savings from investing in HCC PSWs to increase HCC capacity. Beyond the economic evidence, how such investments would benefit those seeking care are also highlighted.