Alberta › Glossary
A glossary of Alberta continuing care terms
Inspection findings use the language of Alberta's continuing care standards. These plain-language definitions explain the terms you will see in a home's record.
- Accommodation standards
- The rules for the non-clinical side of a home: the building, meals, housekeeping, maintenance, safety and security. Inspectors cite these separately from the health-service standards.
- Advance care planning
- A process for a resident, their family and care providers to set out the resident's care wishes in case they later cannot speak for themselves.
- Care plan
- A written, working document setting out a resident's assessed needs, goals and the care to be provided.
- Client
- Alberta’s term for the resident or person receiving continuing care.
- Continuing care
- Alberta's umbrella for the ongoing health and personal care people receive when they need daily support. Under the Continuing Care Act (2024), facility-based care is delivered in licensed continuing care homes, classed by the level of care they provide (Type A or Type B).
- Health care aide
- An unregulated care worker who provides hands-on help with daily living, comfort and safety.
- Health care provider
- Any regulated professional or unregulated worker the home employs or contracts to provide care.
- Health service standards
- The Continuing Care Health Service Standards (CCHSS): the rules for the clinical side of care, covering care planning, medication, infection prevention and control, restraints, staff training and more.
- Interdisciplinary team
- The group (care providers plus the resident or their representative) that plans and reviews the resident's care.
- InterRAI
- A set of standardized assessment instruments used to evaluate a resident's needs, strengths and health status.
- Managed risk agreement
- A signed agreement used when a resident chooses to live at risk, recording the agreed risk-management steps.
- Medication reconciliation
- Checking a resident's full medication list at admission and at transfers to catch and prevent errors.
- Operator
- The organization licensed and publicly funded to run the home and provide care.
- Palliative and end-of-life care
- Care to improve quality of life and relieve suffering for someone with a life-limiting illness, including as they approach death.
- Person-centred care
- Care guided by transparency, individualization, recognition, respect, dignity and choice.
- Personal directive
- A legal document letting someone act for a resident on personal-care matters if the resident cannot decide for themselves.
- Regulated health professional
- A care provider who is a member of a regulated profession (such as a nurse) and practises under the Health Professions Act.
- Reportable incident
- A serious, normally avoidable event that harms or could harm a resident, which the home must report to Alberta.
- Responsive behaviour
- Actions, often linked to dementia, that express an unmet need or a reaction to the person's environment or care.
- Restraint
- Any pharmacological, environmental, mechanical or physical measure used to protect a resident from self-harm or to prevent harm to others. A secure space is counted separately.
- Secure space
- A secure unit, facility or technology (such as a wander-alert system) that limits a resident's ability to leave, used to protect them from harm.
- Significant change in health status
- A consistent pattern of decline or improvement (two or more areas on the assessment), determined by a regulated professional.
- Standardized assessment tool
- A formal tool for evaluating a resident's care needs, strengths and preferences in a consistent way.
- Type A continuing care home
- A licensed home for residents with complex needs who require 24-hour nursing care. It is what Alberta used to call long-term care (nursing homes and auxiliary hospitals). This is the type ReportONCare covers.
- Type B continuing care home
- A licensed home providing scheduled personal care and help with daily living, less intensive than a Type A home. Formerly known as designated supportive living.
- Unmet health care need
- Care a resident still needs after their own abilities, supports and community resources have been taken into account.
- Unregulated health care provider
- A care provider not licensed by a regulatory body, who works under a regulated professional's supervision (for example, a health care aide).
Summarized from the definitions in Alberta's Continuing Care Health Service Standards (2024). Reused under the Open Government Licence – Alberta. For the full standards, see the Alberta continuing care section.