Care: From the Latin “the act of taking care of”. 
An act intended to maintain or improve someone’s health. Attention paid to something.

In the health network, we often hear about tightening the budget, waiting lists that need to be cleared, and performance indicators that must be met. However, at the heart of healthcare, there are first and foremost human beings.

When we say that safe ratios are a sustainable solution for the health network, it is precisely because they put people at the heart of care: healthcare professionals on one side, patients on the other, resulting in quality, safe healthcare.

Currently, in Québec, there are no safety standards regarding the number of patients a healthcare professional can be responsible for. Managers can always ask them to do more. With safe ratios, which are in fact a minimum safety standard, the situation would be very different.

The equation is simple: to provide quality, safe care to X number of patients with similar health problems, a minimum of Y healthcare professionals are required.

If there are fewer healthcare professionals, this poses a risk both to them and their patients. Because they do not have time to perform all their tasks according to professional standards, they are at risk of work overload, exhaustion and absenteeism. Patients, for their part, are at risk of adverse events: medication errors, complications, falls and numerous trips to and from hospital. There is even a higher risk of mortality. So yes, safe ratios save lives.

Ratios that adapt to patients’ needs

Contrary to healthcare, safety standards exist in early childhood care, education and even aviation. Yet the situation is similar: when there are too many patients on a unit, too many students in a class or too many children in a daycare group, the person in charge is unable to perform all their duties.

Just as ratios in classrooms vary according to the age of the children and their level of learning, ratios in healthcare vary according to the centres of activities and the state of health of the patients. Residents in long-term care homes (CHSLD) are not cared for in the same way as patients in intensive care.

And since providing healthcare is first and foremost carried out as a team, ratios are also used in planning the organization of care, determining the total number of healthcare professionals that a care team must have in order to ensure a fair distribution of the workload and care that respects the dignity of patients.

In addition, safe ratios can be upgraded. Is there an influenza outbreak? An expansion on a unit that complicates patient monitoring? More significant comorbidity factors? Staff are added to meet patient needs.

Examples of safe healthcare ratios 

Examples of safe ratios in other fields