Nursing home residents get reprieve
Shannex says bed space will be protected for residents sent to hospital
TRURO, N.S. – Shannex nursing home residents who must be admitted to hospital no longer have to be concerned about losing their beds.
"We will be holding beds for residents that need to go to hospital at Cedarstone Enhanced Care (Victoria Way neighbourhood) and Debert Court,” said Gillian Costello, Shannex’s senior communications manager.
“We are working on all options to bring this to resolution as soon as possible. Our residents’ health and safety remain our number-one priority.”
Last week, the company had informed residents at the Cedarstone, Victoria Way and Debert
Court facilities that beds would not be held for residents who had to be admitted to hospital if they do not have a family physician.
“Currently, we have no primary care physician available to care for residents who do not have their own physician from the community,” the company said in a letter to residents of the two locations.
Nursing homes are responsible for and are mandated through the Nova Scotia Long Term Care Program, which requires all residents to be under the care of a qualified medical practitioner. Shannex and other nursing homes partner with physicians who are responsible for caring for individual groups of residents.
Although Shannex doesn’t actually employ the physicians, the company partners with physicians who are responsible for caring for individual groups of residents.
“They treat residents at our homes and are compensated the same as they are in their individual practices,” Katherine Vanbuskirk, the company’s director of Communications and Community Affairs, said last week.
“That said, we are required to ensure that there is a physician available for each resident.”
In the case of Debert and the Cedarstone-victoria Way residences, however, the doctors Shannex had partnered with have left, which means those residents no longer have physician coverage.
After the matter received provincewide coverage, however, the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) said it would not be enforcing the policy as had been previously announced.
“While there is a policy that requires notification when a bed becomes vacant after 30 days of hospitalization, NSHA has the authority to approve an extension,” said department spokesperson Heather Fairbairn.
“NSHA has communicated directly with Shannex to ensure that if any of their residents at their Cedarstone and Debert facilities are admitted to hospital and cannot return upon discharge, their bed will be held for them.”
“This is awesome news,” said the daughter of one resident, who did not want to be identified publicly in order to protect her mother’s privacy.
“Holding the beds certainly relieves our minds but they still have no doctor. We are fortunate that our mother is physically able; she does have dementia, so even taking her from the familiar surroundings of her room to go to the emergency room is very distressing for her,” the woman said.
“She doesn't have the coping skills to deal with this type of upheaval. When we accepted her bed in Debert Court it was with the understanding that a doctor was on the premises. The NSHA is not fulfilling this agreement and have left residents and family members to take drastic measures.”