Quebec hospital trains nurses, creates new position after man developed fatal bedsore

Quebec's Laurentian health authority is putting in place corrective mea‐ sures in the Saint-Jérôme hospital weeks after the death of Normand Meuni‐ er, who developed a severe bedsore during his four-day hospital stay in January.

The 66-year-old quadri‐ plegic Quebec man chose as‐ sisted dying in March after developing the horrific pres‐ sure sore - where bone and muscle were exposed.

He and his partner had asked staff for a special alter‐ nating pressure mattress that didn't arrive in time.

Since the incident, Steve Desjardins, director of nursing at the Centre intégré de santé et de services soci‐ aux (CISSS) des Laurentides, said the hospital has been working on skill-development for wound care nurses.

"In concrete terms, we are training 26 resource nurses in our various units at the Saint-Jérôme Hospital," said Desjardins.

He says the goal is to en‐ sure enough nurses have the necessary knowledge, given the staff turnover rate and how many move from one department to another.

He says a position in spe‐ cialized intervention in physi‐ cal disabilities was also cre‐ ated last week.

"This person will be able to support the teams, be‐ cause obviously these are sit‐ uations in which the teams are less accustomed to inter‐ vening. So, [the fact] of hav‐ ing someone who is more specialized in this area, well, that can help us better adapt our interventions," said Des‐ jardins.

A review of adapted mat‐ tresses availability and hospi‐ talization criteria is also on the table, to prioritize people at risk of prolonged stays in the emergency department.

"We're in the process of analyzing our stock of thera‐ peutic surfaces and, above all, whether we can do a bet‐ ter job of making these tools [available to] those who need them," said Desjardins.

Internal investigation continues

Walter Zelaya is critical of the measures put forward by the hospital.

The executive director of disability advocacy group Moëlle Épinière et Motricité Québec says it seems like the health authority is "trying to put a lid on things."

"We are trying to discover what's behind it," said Zelaya.

"Someone died and we believe the CISSS has a re‐ sponsibility," said Zelaya. "As an [organization], we have the right to know what hap‐ pened."

The Laurentian health au‐ thority confirmed that the in‐ ternal investigation is not yet complete, and that the office of the service quality and complaints commissioner has retained one complaint related to this situation. It has managed 39 complaints and interventions related to bedsores over the past three years.

'Still have work to do,' says premier

The news about Normand

Meunier was a topic of dis‐ cussion in the National As‐ sembly, prompting Premier François Legault to offer his condolences to the family.

"Of course we still have work to do in the health-care network, it's not simple," said Legault.

"We're short of staff, so we've quickly trained order‐ lies [and] we're trying to get more flexibility from the nurses' union to be able to move nurses to where they're needed most."

Legault also criticized pre‐ vious governments' manage‐ ment of the health network.