Hospital failing seniors, officials say
Directors say residents of retirement home aren’t getting proper care
Officials from an east-end retirement home say their residents are receiving poor quality care from the Scarborough and Rouge Hospital.
In an unusual move, the officials contacted the Star because they said they want to publicly sound the alarm about their concerns.
“Seniors are not getting the care they need,” said registered nurse Mary Kate Garrity, director of health and wellness at the Scarborough Retirement Residence.
“We have residents and families who say, ‘Do not send me to Scarborough General, anywhere but Scarborough General,’ ” said Marie-Josee Lafontaine, owner and executive director of the home, on Markham Rd., near Kingston Rd.
But Lafontaine also said the problems go beyond the Scarborough and Rouge Hospital. While that hospital, particularly its general campus on Lawrence Ave. E., is the one most used by the home’s residents, Lafontaine said the entire health system is increasingly challenged in the way it deals with the growing number of frail, elderly patients who have multiple chronic conditions.
“There is clearly a rooted, systemic issue with our healthcare system, especially when it comes to caring for our elderly population,” she said.
Her concerns echo those of the Canadian Medical Association, which for years has called for the creation of a national seniors strategy.
They also echo some of those being raised at the Long-Term Care Homes Public Inquiry, which is probing how nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer was able to murder eight residents and attempt to murder four others in southwestern Ontario.
Ontario’s new Conservative government has promised to fix the problem of “hallway medicine,” much of which is related to how seniors are treated in the health system. Christine Elliott was sworn in as the province’s new health minister on Friday.
The Scarborough Retirement Residence houses up to 124 residents, many of them in their late 80s and 90s. Lafontaine said her family has owned and operated it for three decades.
Garrity described numerous cases of patients being provided what she considers substandard care at the Scarborough and Rouge Hospital in the last year alone.
“The first issue I observe is a general lack of regard for elders. They are treated as less than,” she charged, describing how residents who are admitted to hospital are put in diapers even if they are not incontinent.
In response to the criticisms, hospital spokesperson Leigh Duncan said: “We are committed to partnering with patients and their families to create the best quality experience. We take every concern seriously and protocols are in place to ensure that fair resolutions can be achieved promptly. It is our understanding that the cases relating to these specific complaints were previously resolved.”
Garrity told of one patient, a 93-year-old woman dying of leukemia, who was admitted to hospital after a fall. Garrity said she alerted a nurse that the patient was in “extreme pain” and was told in response that there was an order to give morphine when required.
“This poor lady could barely speak yet she was expected to ask for pain relief. She died the next day,” Garrity said.
She recounted another case involving an 87-year-old man who moved into the home from hospital, where he had been admitted after a fall. He developed two pressure ulcers during his hospital stay, Garrity said, adding they were so deep that she could see his coccyx or tailbone. She said she learned after making inquiries that he had not been bathed in two weeks.
He developed sepsis and died about eight months after being discharged, Garrity said. Even though he was seen by a wound-care specialist, the ulcers never healed.
Then there was the recent case of an 87-year-old woman with peripheral vascular disease who went to hospital to have a stent placed in an artery to improve blood flow. The procedure was done on an outpatient basis and the woman was sent back to the home at 9:30 p.m. Hours later, an ambulance was called to take her back to hospital. The woman was in severe pain and had substantial bruising and blistering on her thigh.
“She shouldn’t have been dis- charged so soon,” Garrity said, noting there was some passing concern that the patient, an amputee, might lose her other leg.
More than two weeks later, the woman has still not recovered enough to return to the retirement home.
Duncan said the hospital endeavours to have a good relationship with community partners such as local retirement homes: “Scarborough Retirement Residence is a valued partner and our patient care teams have a collaborative relationship with their staff. We will continue to respond to all feedback they share with us, with best quality patient- and familycentred care at the forefront of every interaction.”
Jane Meadus, a lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, said such stories are nothing new to her: “We get those kind of comments and concerns about many hospitals.”
Meadus said ageism is rife in health care and not just in the hospital sector: “There is a lot of discrimination.”
Meadus is participating in the Wettlaufer inquiry as counsel for the Ontario Association of Residents’ Councils. She said the probe is serving to highlight just how poorly seniors are being served in the province.
“The system has not adapted well to the increasing acuity of older people. People are living longer and we are seeing more dementia. The health system is absolutely struggling to meet their needs,” she said.
Garrity said she feels it is the duty of the home to speak out on behalf of residents: “(We) truly care about the residents and when we discover that they are being treated poorly, we act as strong advocates to rectify situations that put our residents’ health and well-being at risk.”