Provincial Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Report Card
The Provincial TBI Report Card Working Group, formerly an initiative of the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation, collaborates with IC/ES to produce annual Provincial TBI Report Cards using administrative data. The goal of these Reports is to provide a snapshot of TBI care across the province using evidence-based quality indicators.
The following Report Cards and associated documents can be found on this page:
| Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Report Card – 2021 |
| Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Report Card – 2020 |
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Report Card - 2021
The Provincial TBI Report Card Working Group has released an administrative data report titled Ontario and Sub Regional Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Care Report Cards and Provincial and Regional Trends in TBI care - 2021. This report provides key insights into the current landscape of publicly funded TBI care in Ontario and has the following objectives:
- Present characteristics of persons after TBI in Ontario and the provincial TBI Report Card based on the combined 2018/19 to 2019/20 fiscal years,
- Present regional summaries of Indicators in the 5 regions and LHIN-level TBI Report Cards based on the combined 2018/19 to 2019/20 fiscal years,
- Identify areas in need of improvement and actionable policy recommendations to address gaps in care.
Ontario TBI Report Card, 2018-2020
The TBI Report Card presents twelve evidence-based key performance indicators that characterize the provincial and regional TBI landscape across the prevention, acute management, rehabilitation, and reintegration continuums of care. The most recently available data (2019/20) for each performance indicator is presented for Ontario, the five Regions and the now dissolved fourteen Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs).
Overall, data shows an increase in the incidence of concussion across the two years of data and a significant mortality associated with TBI that is increasing in Ontario from the previous Report Card. Additional important findings include that once admitted to acute care, approximately 25% of days are spent at an alternate level of care, meaning individuals are occupying beds which are above their care needs and represents an inappropriate use of resources. Rural and northern regions show significant delays to care access and patient follow-up following discharge, where individuals are waiting longer to receive both general and specialized medical and allied healthcare, particularly for care related to mental health support.
Median homecare wait times are 55 and 52 days for speech language pathology and social work, respectively; this is in contrast to 15 days for physiotherapy and 11 days for occupational therapy. All of these medians are greater than the recommended 7 days for initiation of homecare service. While the provincial means for medical follow up assessments were 75.12% at 30 days for primary care provider and 66.31% at 180 days for neurologist, neurosurgeon or physiatrist, in certain LHINs these proportions are as low as 51.85% and 50.00%, respectively.
A working group of provincial health system and clinical experts collaborated in the development of this report as well as the creation of the seven recommendations related to clinical service provision and the data recommendation to address the major inefficiencies identified in the report card. The findings from this report align directly with the Ontario Ministry of Health's current mandates to improve access to care and enhance system efficiency through effective organization.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Report Card - 2020
The Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation released an administrative data report titled Ontario and Sub Regional Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Care Report Cards and Provincial and Regional Trends. This report provides key insights into the current landscape of publicly funded TBI care in Ontario and has the following objectives:
- Introduce the first provincial and regional TBI Report Cards based on 2017/18 fiscal year,
- Summarize 5-year provincial and regional trends in TBI care, and
- Identify areas in need of improvement and actionable policy recommendations to address gaps in care.
Ontario TBI Report Card, 2017/18
The TBI Report Card presents eleven evidence-based key performance indicators that characterize the provincial and regional TBI landscape across the prevention, acute management, rehabilitation, and reintegration continuums of care. The most recently available data (2017/18) for each performance indicator is presented for Ontario and its now dissolved fourteen Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs).
Overall, data shows that incidence of admission for TBI and mortality associated with TBI are increasing in Ontario. Additional important findings include that once admitted to acute care, 25-30% of days are spent at an alternate level of care, meaning individuals are occupying beds which are above their care needs and represents an inappropriate use of resources. Rural and northern regions show significant delays to care access and patient follow-up following discharge, with some experiencing homecare wait times as high as 29 days; this is three times higher than the provincial average of nine days.
A panel of provincial health system and clinical experts collaborated in the development of this report as well as the creation of fourteen practical recommendations to address the major inefficiencies identified in the report card. The findings from this report align directly with the Ontario Ministry of Health's current mandates to improve access to care and enhance system efficiency through effective organization.
