Staff shortages affecting care of elderly

Staff shortages and inconsistency in the care being provided to her mother at the Hôpital et centre d'hébergement D'youville long-term care facility in Sherbrooke is cause for concern for caregiver Lynne Ann Nutbrown.

While she believes employees at Youville are doing what they can, Nutbrown explained that a staffing shortage has led to a number of situations where her mother did not receive proper care.

“People like my mom worked hard all their lives. She should be treated better,” she commented.

Nutbrown has already filed a complaint, but was told the issue stems from a province-wide shortage of personnel.

“They’re trying, but the government won’t do anything if no one complains,” commented Nutbrown.

She visits her mother Maryl daily, and her niece Angie goes every night to put Maryl to bed. Not all of the residents in the long-term care unit get two visits a day, she added.

“I don’t know what time she would get to bed if she (Angie) weren’t there,” Nutbrown said.

“They do the best they can, but if someone calls in sick, she has to stay in bed all day,” commented Nutbrown.

On one occasion while visiting her mother, Nutbrown said she rang for assistance and an hour and 15 minutes passed before someone came.

“You have to wait your turn; but when your diaper is full, an hour and 15 minutes is too long to wait,” she said.

Nutbrown added that when she is present, there is an expectation that she will help.

A retired hospital employee herself, Nutbrown said she doesn’t mind, but there is a limit.

Consistency of service is another issue, Nutbrown pointed out.

There are days when she will arrive to find her mother in a clean room with her bed made, her hair done and even wearing perfume, in high spirits.

On other days, she arrives to uncleared food trays and her mother still in bed at noon.

“When she wants to get up, she should be able to get up,” Nutbrown said, explaining that there is a big difference in the care her mother gets from senior staff and new employees, usually working weekend shifts.

“They don’t know if they’re coming or going,” Nutbrown said.

The result, according to Nutbrown, is personnel rushing to try and finish their tasks.

It is not uncommon for staff to lean out the doorway of a client’s room and yell down the hallway to another staff member about what has or hasn’t been done yet in a specific room.

“They’re running all day long and they’re still not finished,” Nutbrown said, pointing out that the clientele at Youville are at a point in their lives where things move more slowly; they deserve patience and a certain level of discretion and respect, she suggested.

Either as a lack of training or a corner-cutting measure, Nutbrown said it has happened more than once that an attendant changing her mother’s diaper dropped soiled wash clothes on the floor beside the bed rather than bringing them to a laundry hamper.

On those occasions, Nutbrown said she was quick to insist that a janitor come to the room immediately and sanitize the floor.

CIUSSS de l’estrie CHUS representative Geneviève Lemay confirmed that there is currently a province-wide need for more workers, specifically care attendants (préposées), auxiliary nurses and administrative personnel.

Lemay said that because of the shortage, if an employee is unable to do their shift, it can be challenging to find a replacement. The alternative is to ask another staff member to work overtime. If that isn’t possible, Lamay said an effort is made to redistribute the workload among the other employees on shift to try and maintain a safe and quality level of service.

When asked how many complaints had been filed regarding the service at Youville, Lemay said complaints regarding a specific institution were not available. She did, however, provide the 2016-17 official report from the commissioner of complaints. Last year, 812 complaints were filed against different divisions of the CIUSSS de l’estrie CHUS. Among those, seven per cent were regarding CHSLDS (long-term care facilities). Over 50 per cent were related to general hospital services.

There were also 1,160 complaints of dissatisfaction logged and analysed last year.

According to the report, 700 measures for improvement resulted from the complaints.

On average, the complaints were addressed within 35 days.

Lemay said this year’s report from the complaints commissioner will be available in November.

The Record contacted the CLSC and CHSLD Users Committee to find out if they were aware of issues specific to Youville.

The representative acknowledged the overall staffing shortage, but wasn’t familiar with issues at a specific institution. Consistency of care, however, was something the user’s committee was looking closely at, the rep said.

One of the options being considered at the moment is designating care attendants to specific clients to develop a familiarity and consistency. With attendants always responsible for the same clients, any complaints or issues would be easily traceable, the rep said.

She added that anyone with a concern related to health and social services should contact the Centre d’assistance et d’accompagnement aux Plaintes de l’ Estrie (CAAP), a service mandated by the health ministry to inform citizens of their rights and assist in the complaint procedure.

The local CAAP office is located at 1255 rue Daniel, room 208 in Sherbrooke. The website is http://caapestrie.org, and the phone number is (819) 823-2047 or toll free : 1 (877) 767-2227.