Identifying characteristics of residential care facilities relevant to the placement process of seniors.

OBJECTIVE To identify which characteristics of the physical and organizational environments of residential care facilities (RCFs) need to be known to support the placement process of seniors with cognitive and physical disabilities. DESIGN We used a 2-round postal Delphi survey based on the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method with 2 groups of experts. PARTICIPANTS Participants are representatives of concerned stakeholder groups from various sectors (public, private, and community) and geographical regions within the province of Quebec, Canada. RESULTS Of the 58 persons who were interested in participating, 48 (82.8%) returned their questionnaires. The first group identified 171 items essential to consider when a cognitively impaired senior needs to move into an RCF. Of these, 88 were related to the physical environment of the RCF and 83 to its organizational environment. The second group identified 146 items to be relevant to consider when a senior with physical impairments needs to choose an RCF; 75 for the physical and 71 for the organizational environment. 85% of the items selected by both groups (cognitive versus physical group) were identical. CONCLUSION This study provided a list of important items that described residential care facilities in regard to their physical and organizational environments to support the placement process of seniors. It also provides the possibility to develop a self-administered tool that will supply valuable information to seniors and their relatives, to health care professionals, and to administrators and decisions-makers.