Six seniors’ facilities deemed ‘high risk’ by Interior Health

Patterns of non-compliance and critical-care infractions have resulted in six seniors’ residential-care facilities in Kelowna being labelled “high risk” by Interior Health.

High-risk ratings are given after Interior Health licensing officers look at the last three years of investigation reports, the types of incidents being reported, the response to those issues by the facilities and patterns of non-compliance, said Sharlene Lively, manager of licensing for Interior Health.

Orchard Manor at Hawthorn Park, Spring Valley Care Centre, Good Samaritan Society Mountainview Village, Brookvale Care Centre, Avonlea House and Villeneuve House are all on Interior Health’s radar as “high risk” facilities.

The online IH inspection reports list critical and non-critical infractions for each facility from unannounced inspections by IH licensing officers.

IH licensing officers do not have the ability to issue tickets to facilities in non-compliance, but there are other methods of enforcement, said Lively.

“If we’re not getting the remediation that we expect and we start to lose confidence that they are able to comply, then we have the ability to suspend or cancel a licence or put terms and constraints on a licence,” she said.

A residential-care facility is less likely to be shut down than other types of facilities, however, since a closure would disrupt the people who live there, she added.

“We certainly wouldn’t be closing a facility that would leave 100 some-odd residents without a home.”

Instead, IH would appoint an administrator who would step in and take over operation of the facility.

“It would be a risk-based decision, and we would need to have exhausted every opportunity,” she said.