Funeral home workers no longer go into long-term-care homes
Province implements changes to reduce COVID-19 transmission
WATERLOO REGION — Residents who die in long-term-care homes are being moved more quickly out of the homes as funeral home workers wait outside to take away the body.
The new death response protocols were put in place last week by the provincial government to ensure residents who die are moved from the home quickly and efficiently. It also reduces the number of people entering the care home and possibly getting sick themselves from COVID-19.
The province, along with the chief coroner, the funeral home association and the bereavement association, wanted to make sure grim situations in New York City — where refrigerated trucks converted into temporary storage morgues parked in hospital parking lots — didn’t happen here.
“We really want to avoid that in whatever way possible,” Ontario Chief Coroner Dr. Dirk Huyer said in an interview Friday.
Huyer said discussions were underway when a surge in deaths began in the province, particularly in long-term care homes. Locally, there have been 45 coronavirus deaths, 35 of them in long-term care homes.
“We wanted to plan carefully and together and maintain the normal process of respectful aftercare,” Huyer said.
In the “expedited death response” measures put in place April 14, funeral home workers now remain outside the care home and pass their stretcher to health-care workers, who then prepare the deceased in an enclosed body bag that is disinfected before coming back out, Huyer said.
“It’s to reduce any risk of transmission,” he said.
Personal protective equipment does not have to be worn by funeral home employees, he said.
The provincial coroner’s office now produces the death certificate and it is sent electronically rather than having a doctor come into the long-term-care home.
“Everyone is stepping in on the foundation that these people were our families and remembering that they were part of our communities,” Huyer said. “We need to do right by them.”
Huyer said the added capacity and efficiency ensures the health and safety of the workers, prudent use of protective gear and allows doctors and nurses and funeral services to do what they do best — patient and customer care.
The measures have prompt timelines and funeral workers responding 24-7, Huyer said.
“If there is a large number of people passing, you can’t wait until 9 a.m. to respond to what occurred overnight,” he said.
“We don’t want to overburden the hospitals and we don’t want to move to a temporary storage whatsoever,” he said.
Huyer said making the tough decision to remove the dead from the home within three hours is a “huge burden” on the workers and the families coping with loss.
“Families have just lost their loved ones and they might not have been able to visit them, and that is just horrible,” he said.
The Ontario Association of Cemetery and Funeral Professionals and the Bereavement Authority of Ontario were also part of the new protocol.
“It keeps us out of the facilities so we don’t bring any potential infection into the facility and it assists the front-line workers and frees up their beds and make more health-care beds available,” said Steven Reynolds, president of the board of the Ontario Association of Cemetery and Funeral Professionals.
“It does put a strain on our resources because we are expected to be at the ready 24-7,” he said.
For hospitals, funeral homes must attend within an hour and three hours for long-term-care homes.
“This is a huge change for us,” Reynolds said.
New COVID-19 restrictions allow for only 10 people at a funeral, which also includes the clergy.
“It’s a challenge for our families to pick their nine most important people to be present and the rest can view the service virtually,” he said.