{"id":14106,"date":"2020-07-23T23:03:36","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T03:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=14106"},"modified":"2020-07-26T23:04:32","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T03:04:32","slug":"levy-study-says-ltc-homes-have-huge-staffing-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/levy-study-says-ltc-homes-have-huge-staffing-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"LEVY: Study says LTC homes have huge staffing issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(July 22, 2020)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By: Sue-Ann Levy, Toronto Sun<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A newly released Ontario Health Coalition survey has quantified what many families and advocates have been hearing in the past three months: Namely that long-term care homes have even worse staffing issues than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OHC executive director Natalie Mehra told a Zoom press conference that among those surveyed, 95% reported they are working short-staffed as often as every day \u2014 and 68% said staffing levels are even worse than prior to the start of the virus, the biggest problems being in the for-profit homes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The staff missing are not just PSWs but RPNs, RNs, housekeeping, dietary and laundry staff, we heard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cStaffing levels are worse than ever,\u201d said Mehra, noting the staff numbers are so decimated in some homes that they\u2019ve been struggling to provide even basic care.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u201cStaff describe the situation as heartbreaking.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The survey was conducted between July 10 and 17 and was answered by 150 long-term care staff working in 75 different LTC homes around the province.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some 8,000 LTC residents and staff have been infected by COVID-19 and more than 1,900 have passed away.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, there have been deaths due to dehydration and malnutrition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mehra says staff are reporting that they\u2019ve worked without vacations, lieu time or weekends off.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This has taken its toll on patient care, she said, noting that the findings show residents are \u201cregularly going without bathing\u201d or full baths \u2014 that they\u2019re lucky to get bed baths.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Emotional support and one-on-one conversations is \u201calmost non-existent,\u201d she said, and residents are \u201clonely, they miss their families, sad and depressed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The survey shows that staff are offering \u201crushed care\u201d and often don\u2019t have time to provide nail care, applying creams, tooth brushing and shaving.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cLate and rushed care is reported as happening all the time in the homes,\u201d she said, noting that tidying rooms and cleaning bathrooms have also fallen by the wayside due to a severe shortage of housekeeping staff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mehra said often soiled linens are not laundered on a timely basis and feeding is rushed \u2014 particularly with those with dementia who have to be reminded to keep eating.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cStaff report that there is often not enough time to feed and hydrate residents,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She says in a \u201cshocking number of homes\u201d there is no rehab being conducted, no entertainment, no time to contact families and not enough staff to provide medications to residents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt is all hair-raising,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was extremely distressing to us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Joadel Concepcion, a registered nurse working in a Markham long-term care home, said she\u2019s very worried about a second wave of COVID-19 with so few staff. Concepcion is at home recovering from COVID-19.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We heard that the wages, benefits and the number of staff resources are a \u201chuge issue\u201d \u2014 which the province has yet to address.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Listening to the results of the survey and the severe staff shortages to help with the huge needs of LTC residents, I suggested to Mehra that it is more than time \u2014 after four months \u2014 to allow essential family caregivers into homes (with the proper precautions, of course) to help pick up the slack.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt can\u2019t continue \u2026 it doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d she said, emphasizing that residents are declining. \u201cThis is not acceptable \u2026 it\u2019s unbelievably inhumane not to get in there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, Mehra noted, quite rightly, that there isn\u2019t enough staff to screen essential family caregivers and train them on proper PPE \u2014 and staff are \u201cterrified of this coming back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I suggested perhaps health ministry, LHIN or CCAC officials be assigned temporarily to homes \u2014 just as the Canadian army did \u2014 to help out with screening and training.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mehra agreed that system needs to be set up and \u201cimmediately.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/torontosun.com\/news\/local-news\/levy-study-says-ltc-homes-have-huge-staffing-issues\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Link to original article<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(July 22, 2020)\u00a0 By: Sue-Ann Levy, Toronto Sun\u00a0 A newly released Ontario Health Coalition survey has quantified what many families and advocates have been hearing in the past three months: Namely that long-term care homes have even worse staffing issues than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. OHC executive director Natalie Mehra told a Zoom press [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ohc-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>LEVY: Study says LTC homes have huge staffing issues - Ontario Health Coalition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(July 22, 2020)\u00a0 By: Sue-Ann Levy, Toronto Sun\u00a0 A newly released Ontario Health Coalition survey has quantified what many families and advocates have been\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/levy-study-says-ltc-homes-have-huge-staffing-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LEVY: Study says LTC homes have huge staffing issues - 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