Some Edmonton home-care contracts to be restored
Announcement won’t affect Calgary agencies
EDMONTON— A massive consolidation of home care agencies in the Edmonton area is being partially reversed after a groundswell of public pressure prompted Health Minister Fred Horne to intervene.
Horne announced that a number of operators who had been told they were losing their home care contract with Alberta Health Services will now be offered new deals to continue providing the service.
The change mainly affects “congregate” living facilities, such as lodges or supportive living centres, with multiple residents living under one roof, he said.
“As the minister, my concern is are we protecting and enhancing quality, are we doing better for patients when we make these sorts of changes,” Horne said.
Providers said they got the news late Friday afternoon as they were meeting together with the Alberta NDP at the legislature.
“Their phones were all ringing at about the same time. We all received
We can’t just be making arbitrary decisions in the dark NDP HEALTH CRITIC DAVID EGGEN
some news about reversals,” said Gail Sopkow, executive director of Operation Friendship Seniors Society, a non-profit group that offers housing and other supports to troubled clients over age 55.
AHS announced last month it was dramatically reducing the number of home care agencies it uses in Calgary and Edmonton to help patients with daily tasks such as dressing, bathing, meals and medications. The shift from 72 agencies down to 13 — mostly large, for-proft corporations — would save AHS $18 million and help standardize care across the province, the health authority said.
While Horne said he was generally in favour of the plan, several weeks of hostility from patients and their families prompted him to ask new AHS administrator Janet Davidson to review the change.
He said Davidson established an independent appeal panel to help assess the complaints, ultimately deciding it was important for some patients to keep a single care provider they knew. He said there was particular concern about “fragmented” care in supportive living facilities, when residents were set to see one agency for home care, but then receive medical care or other services from staff on-site.
“There was concern they would be in a situation where they had multiple teams of providers coming in to look after the same resident,” Horne said. “(This change) is go- ing to help ensure that the people operating the lodges and supportive living facilities, that their staff, the same staff that look after the residents, can also provide the home care.
“I can tell you certainly if it was my parent, that’s what I’d want and expect, and they’re going to be able to do that.”
He said the reversals will affect agencies in the Edmonton zone only, since Calgary already has a more integrated care system.
Horne said he’s not sure whether AHS will face any consequences from pulling away contracts from successful bidders such as CBI, Bayshore Health, We Care and Revera.
An AHS spokeswoman said the 13 companies that originally won contracts will continue to be employed in Alberta, but said more details wouldn’t be available until Monday.
NDP health critic David Eggen said that while he was glad to hear of the reversal, more needs to be known about how the decisions were made.
Janet Davidson’s review should be made public, said Eggen, who called for a further public review of the process.
“There’s many other very able home care operations across Alberta that have been cut off at the knees by this decision,” he said. “We can’t just be making arbitrary decisions in the dark without the public knowing why.”