How the Retirement Living Availability Registry Helps Hospitals and Health Care Workers
Elderado – October 26, 2025
When a patient no longer needs acute care but can’t safely return home, social workers, discharge planners, and patient care coordinators often have to work against the clock to find appropriate elder care. Every long-term care home has a waitlist, but there are retirement homes with immediate availability – the problem is finding those homes. The traditional process is time-consuming: making dozens of phone calls to homes, leaving messages, waiting for call-backs, and repeating the same questions over and over.
The Retirement Living Availability Registry (RLAR) simplifies this process. It’s a free, online tool from Elderado that shows which retirement homes have current availability — all in one place.
A Faster Way to Help Patients and Families
The RLAR was designed to make it easier for patients and their loved ones to find a home when they need it most. Instead of health care workers phoning multiple retirement homes, families can quickly:
- See which homes currently have suites available in Independent Living, Assisted Living, Memory Care, or Respite Care.
- View the starting price for available suites.
- Access the home’s company page with photos, video tours, activity calendars, inspection reports, and other helpful details.
- Contact the home directly.
This means less time spent searching and more time supporting patients and families as they transition to the next stage of care.
Reducing the Burden on Frontline Staff
Social workers, discharge planners, and patient care coordinators are often the ones trying to bridge the gap between hospital care and other elder care options. But calling around to retirement homes isn’t just inefficient — it also takes valuable time away from patient support.
The RLAR helps to:
- Save hours of manual calling and coordination.
- Give families a clear, current list of real options.
- Create a more consistent discharge planning process across teams.
- Empower families to make informed decisions quickly.
By making availability visible, health care workers can focus on what they do best — supporting patients — rather than chasing information.
Supporting the Reduction of ALC Pressures
Alternate Level of Care (ALC) pressures remain a serious challenge across Ontario. Many patients are ready to leave hospital but have nowhere to go because families struggle to find a suitable home in time. This results in beds staying occupied longer than necessary.
The RLAR provides a practical solution:
- Families can see current availability in retirement homes.
- Discharge teams can guide families to the tool instead of making dozens of calls themselves.
- Patients can transition out of hospital more smoothly.
By helping connect patients to appropriate care more quickly, the RLAR supports efforts to relieve ALC pressures and free up hospital beds for those who need them most.
Free Information Handouts
We offer a free handout for hospitals, clinics, and health care professionals to share with families. This resource explains how the RLAR works and gives families everything they need to start their search immediately.
Who can request handouts:
- Hospitals
- Outpatient clinics
- Social work teams
- Discharge planning teams
- Primary care and community health partners
To request free copies of the RLAR hospital handout for your team or patients, contact us through Elderado.ca.
A Simple, Effective Tool
The Retirement Living Availability Registry is about more than technology – it’s about supporting patients, families, and the professionals who help them every day.
By giving frontline health care workers and families a fast, clear way to find available retirement homes, we can help reduce stress, ease system pressures, and improve patient flow.