City seniors’ homes put on notice
The City of Ottawa has been slapped with an “unheard of” blanket order from the province to improve safety and care at three of its four long-term care homes following a string of incidents, including the repeated punching of one resident by a caregiver and head injuries suffered by another resident that were later covered up.
The “director referral order” from the provincial Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, is something rarely issued in Ontario and only in cases where there is a chronic history of non-compliance, which has been the case in Ottawa.
In addition to the order covering Garry J Armstrong, Peter D. Clark and Centre d’Accueil Champlain, all run by the City of Ottawa, the province has ordered a risk assessment at the city’s fourth long-term care home, Carleton Lodge.
The extent of the provincial order suggests a systemic problem at city-run homes in Ottawa, said Jane Meadus, a lawyer for the Toronto-based Advocacy Centre for the Elderly.
“It seems to me that this is saying the City of Ottawa definitely has issues with respect to their longterm care homes,” Meadus said. “Director orders are not something that happen often, and I have never seen them for more than one home (at a time).
“It definitely is an extremely serious issue.”
Residents and their families at Garry J. Armstrong, Peter D. Clark and Centre d’Accueil Champlain learned of the order when a notice was posted in the homes late last month. The province only made its director’s order report public this week, nearly a month after it was issued.
The note, from Dean Lett of the city’s long-term care branch, said the ministry requires the city to come up with a plan to address areas of concern, including training on prevention of abuse and neglect and mandatory reporting. It must be implemented at all four city homes by Dec. 1, he said. The city will consult with residents and families as part of the process.
Two of the most disturbing recent incidents at Garry J. Armstrong involved abuse and neglect of residents, as well as mandatory reporting.
In its report, the province said the director’s order was deemed necessary “given the scope and severity of the non-compliances … and the licensee’s history of compliance.”
The provincial inspection report said the director referral order was issued after the province reissued a second consecutive finding that Garry J. Armstrong was failing to protect residents from abuse and neglect. That was the fourth time since 2015 the city was found to be in non-compliance with the section of the long-term care act regarding abuse and neglect at Garry J. Armstrong.
There have also been inspections at Peter D. Clark and Centre d’Accueil Champlain. There was one finding of non-compliance when it comes to protecting residents from abuse and neglect at Centre d’Accueil. During a later inspection, the home was found to be in compliance with the act. There were no findings of noncompliance when it comes to duty to protect residents from abuse and neglect at either Peter D. Clark or Carleton Lodge in the past three years.
Last month, the Citizen reported that an elderly man with dementia had been punched in the face by a personal support worker at the city-run long-term care home on Island Lodge Road. The incident, in which Georges Karam was punched nine times, was captured on a video camera his family had installed after becoming concerned about his unexplained injuries. The worker was fired and subsequently convicted of assault. Karam’s grandson, Ottawa lawyer Daniel Nassrallah, told the Citizen he was stunned when he reviewed the video and went immediately to the home.
In another incident, Rita Bisson’s late husband, François, was injured while a resident at Garry J. Armstrong last December. According to ministry reports, the personal support worker caring for him failed to strap him into his wheelchair as required and left him alone. When the worker returned to the room, Bisson was on the floor in a pool of blood.
The worker, who was later fired, cleaned up Bisson and the blood and put him to bed without telling anyone or filing a report on the incident. The elderly man’s injuries were only discovered in the morning. Investigators with the province were later told that a member of the home’s registered nursing staff told another personal support worker who had learned of the incident not to document it in Bisson’s chart.
Rita Bisson said Tuesday that she never learned all the details of the incident until she recently read the province’s inspection report. She described a “veil of secrecy” surrounding her husband’s injury from which, she says, he never really recovered. He died in May.
“I still go to bed and think of him on the floor in a pool of blood. If they had been upfront, I might have understood. Accidents do happen. But what I didn’t understand was the coverup.”
Rita Bisson said she was shocked that no one from the home reached out to her after the accident. She said she asked the director why they didn’t contact her and was told: “It is not in our procedure.”
City Coun. Diane Deans, who heads the committee in charge of long-term care, said she is not familiar with the details of the director referral order. But she said it raises the question of whether the province provides enough money for long-term care and whether it is “enough to provide proper care and proper training.”
Provincial inspectors frequently visit long-term care homes to investigate issues and complaints — some to do with residents’ plans of care and diet, others to do with how often residents are moved, and with their skin care. Investigations into alleged abuse or neglect are the most serious.
In recent months, the Citizen has also reported on family members being restricted from visiting parents at a city-run long-term care home after they complained about the quality of care and, in one case, infection control.
One former nurse received a notrespass order at her mother’s longterm care home after complaining about infection control — an issue the ministry investigated and ordered improved. She later installed cameras in her mother’s room.
She called the director referral order “a real cause for concern.”
“Seeing that the ministry has made public recognition of the deficient state of these city-owned facilities is positive.
“The negative is that these deficiencies have been reported over and over and over again for many years, as testified to on the public reporting website, and those are only the complaints that made it through all the barriers. That is where the value of cameras in longterm care is undeniable.”
Meadus, from the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, recommended that family members remain vigilant in light of the number of issues raised at city long-term care homes.
“If you have a family member there, you want to be going and visiting them and keeping an eye on things.”
If they had been upfront, I might have understood . ... But what I didn’t understand was the coverup.