167 7.1.1 Federal Legislation and Standards

In 2020, the federal government responded to the Canadian LTC crisis by making a commitment  to improve the LTC system. Following direction from the Federal Government, the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), Health Standards Organization (HSO) and Canadian Standards Association (CSA Group) collaborated to develop two new complementary National Standards for Long-Term Care shaped by the needs of residents, families and Canada’s LTC workforce.

This commitment contributed to the development of two National LTC Standards:

The purpose of these National LTC Standards is to address the delivery of safe, reliable and high-quality LTC services ^[1] and design, operation and infection prevention and control practices in LTC homes^[2].

CAN/HSO 21001:2023 – Long-Term Care Services Standard:

• Governing LTC home’s strategies, activities & outcomes
• Upholding resident-centred care
• Enabling a meaningful quality of life for residents
• Ensuring high-quality & safe care
• Enabling a healthy & competent workforce
• Promoting quality improvement

CSA Z8004 – Long-Term Care Home Operations & Infection Prevention and Control:

• Organizational commitments
• Operations
• Quality improvement
• Infection prevention & control
• Design
• LTC home building systems
• Information technology (IT)
• Catastrophic event management
• Training & simulation