b'RESIDENT CONSENTResults from the PoET Southwest Spread ProjectThe PoET Southwest Spread Project found:Association between PoET and decreases in transfers to hospital, especially at end of life: - Long-term care residents who live in homes exposed to PoET are sent to acute care at a 27% lower rate than residents who live in long-term care homes not exposed to PoET.- Long-term care residents who live in homes exposed to PoET are, in their last two months of life, sent to acute care at a 45% lower rate than residents who live in long-term care homes not exposed to PoET.Association between PoET and an increase in palliative care encounters: - Long-term care residents who live in homes exposed to PoET encounter palliative care at a 147% greater rate than residents who live in long-term care homes not exposed to PoET.The full results and their discussion can be found in the projects publications in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association (Sept. 27, 2023 and Feb. 28, 2024).program goal is to help all long-termfoundation for future accreditationLike anyone else in Ontario, long-care homes in Ontario improve theirand quality practice standards.term care residents should expect that alignment with the Act, so that theResults from this study are expecteddecision-making about their care will benefits shown through the southwestin December 2025. follow the Health Care Consent Act. project can be spread. The results shared in this article show In addition to the Provincial PoETthat doing so helps to decrease transfers This program also fills a gap thatProgram, the PoET Project offersto hospital and increase palliative care currently exists for Ontario long- other resources for Ontario long- encounters. We developed the PoET term care homes and their residents.term care home residents, familyCertification standards with the goal of Currently, residents are unablemembers, staff and physicians,making sure peopleespecially residents to evaluate a homes efforts and can rely on it, says Dr. Oliver. commitments to the decision-makingincluding tools and resources, free structures of the Act, and homes havewebinars, role-playing games andAs one resident from a PoET home no way to make this visible to themvideos. The resources and morestated, My life choices matter to me or other interested bodies such asinformation about the Provincialthe mostthats up to me, not my kids. professional colleges and accreditingProgram can be found on the PoETThank you for giving me the control over bodies. PoET has a certificationProjects website, poetproject.ca. my life choices back.LTCTprocess that encourages homes to make sustainable changes, which will stay in place even with changesin staff.This helps to increase accountability"Our results provided and consistency across the province.definitive evidence that PoETs Program Coordinator, Theresa Nitti, works directly with homes toreducing errors in the help them identify and implement changes. Homes have always seenhealth care decision-making their involvement with PoET as a point of pride, she says, and we are soprocess in long-term care happy to introduce the certification process to put some structure andleads to benefits to the visibility around that.Additionally, Drs. Oliver, Chidwick andresident, long-term care Siu are collaborating on a project thathomes and the entire health is piloting a set of documentation and process indicators, which couldcare system."demonstrate alignment with the Act in participating homes. Successful- Dr. Henry Siuindicators could be used as a www.oltca.com LONG TERM CARE TODAY 35'