Introduction

Level of care received refers to the particular type of hospital in which care is received. Hospitals range from small institutions, having less than 15 beds, to large, urban, teaching hospitals with hundreds of beds and a capacity to provide specialized services. Use of one type of hospital instead of another has implications for the availability of specialized services, distance a patient might travel, and resource costs of providing care. Hospitals may be grouped according to their similarities (in terms of size, level of specialization, and environment) to permit analyses of the relative rates of use of different levels of hospital care.

Levels of Care

Level of care is identified by receiving care in one of the following hospitals:


• teaching
  
• urban community
  
• major rural
  
• intermediate rural
  
• small rural
  
• small multi-use
  
• northern isolated

Or care may be received from one of 4 other categories according to their role in the community:


• Personal Care Home
  
• chronic and rehabilitation institutions
  
• federal nursing stations
  
• out of province facilities

These various levels of care were defined through the Capital Planning project.

Level of care received in a hospital should not be confused with level of care as defined by the personal care home. PCH Level of Care refers to the number of hours of care each patient should receive depending on an assessment. For related material refer to the Level of Care - In Personal Care Home (PCH) concept.