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Irene Jansen

Ontario's Plan for Personal Support Workers - 0 views

healthydebate.ca/...personal-support-workers

care aide ontario regulation education staffing

shared by Irene Jansen on 11 May 12 - No Cached
  • May 16 is Personal Support Worker Day. PSWs are increasingly providing the majority of direct care services to elderly or ill patients who live in long-term care institutions or who receive home care.
  • Richards noted that “they [PSWs] are constantly on the go … they have very little time to actually sit down and provide comfort to residents and build that important relationship between themselves as caregivers with the residents and their family members”.
  • There is a great deal of variation in what PSWs do, where they work, and how they are supervised. This has made many argue that there must be more standardized training and regulation of PSWs. Others point out that it is at least as important to ensure that their working conditions allow PSWs to provide the compassionate and high quality care that their clients deserve.
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  • PSWs have a role standard  which says “personal support workers do for a person the things that the person would do for themselves, if they were physically or cognitively able”.
  • There is a great deal of variation around the kind of care PSW’s provide, with some PSWs providing medical care such as changing wound dressings and administering medication, and others providing  ‘only’ personal care such as bathing, transfers from bed and housework. What PSWs can and cannot do varies based on their training, supervision and employer policies.
  • An estimated 57,000 PSWs in Ontario work in the long-term care sector, 26,000 work for agencies that provide community and home care, and about 7,000 provide care in hospitals.
  • Changes to the Long-Term Care Act in 2010 outlined a minimum standard of education for PSWs working in that sector specifically.
  • PSWs working in long-term care homes are required to work under the supervision of a registered nurse or registered practical nurse
  • Some have suggested that rather than standardizing education for PSWs, more standards should be put in place around PSW supervision, scope of practice and work environment in long-term care and community agencies.
  • 92% of PSWs are women, and many work at multiple part time jobs, involving a great deal of shift work.  PSWs are often paid minimum wages with few benefits.
  • Community colleges, continuing education programs and private career colleges offer courses or programs of varying durations, with no standardized core curriculum across the programs. There is no single body in Ontario that monitors the quality of these programs.
  • a PSW Registry to collect information about the training and employment status of the nearly 100,000 PSWs in Ontario
  • Long-Term Care Task Force on Resident Care and Safety
  • “a registry is a mechanism of counting and it doesn’t ensure anything about quality, preparation or standards.”
  • in the past two months there have been stakeholder consultations around educational standards for PSWs
  • Catherine Richards, Cause for Concern: Ontario’s Long Term Care Homes (Facebook group)
  • “PSWs have high expectations put on them but very little support to do their jobs.”
  • In my opinion, what we need most is a ministry (MOHLTC) that will demonstrate leadership by clarifying the role of the PSW in long-term care, nursing homes, hospitals and yes, home care, and to consistently enforce high standards of care
  • PSWs should feel able to rely on consistent supervision and clear guidance from registered nursing staff and management, yet from my observation there is a lack of communication between PSWs and RPNs/RNs in a long term care home setting, and rarely in my experience is honest communication encouraged to include patients/residents and families. In home care, PSWs have even less support or supervision which should concern people.
  • PSWs are rarely afforded the time to properly perform the necessary tasks assigned to them and they often bear the brunt of complaints
  • it is the leadership that must accept the bulk of responsibility when PSW care standards are low
  • Ombudsman oversight would provide an immediate and direct incentive to elevate care standards
  • In Nova Scotia, a registry was put in place for Continuing Care Assistants (the provinces’ equivalent to PSWs) in 2010 which has been used to communicate directly with CCAs as well as keep track of where they work. In addition, the registry provides resources and the development of a personalized learning plan to help care givers who do not have the provincial CCA obtain further training. British Columbia has also recently introduced a registry for Care Aids and Community Support Workers.
  • CUPE addresses these issues in Our Vision For Better Seniors’ Care: http://cupe.ca/privatization-watch-february-2010/our-vision-research-paper
  • having someone help you bathe, dress, eat and even wash your hair is as important as the medical care
  • I have worked in a Long-Term Care Facility for four years and have many concerns
  • it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that some point of care is being neglected
  • need to have more PSW staff on the front line
  • “it is like an assembly line here in the morning”
  • I don’t think these people are getting the dignity and respect they deserve.
  • We want to stop responsive behaviours, we need to know what triggers are. what is the root cause
  • We can’t do this with having less than 15 mins per resident for care.
  • I also believe that registering PSW’s will eliminate those who are in the career for just the money.
  • I have been a PSW for 8 years
  • Every year they talk more and more about residents rights, dignity ect ect … and yet every year, residents have been given less one on one time, poorer quality of meals, cut backs on activities and more than anything else, a lessened quality of care provided by over worked PSW’s.
  • Residents have floor mat sensors, wheelchair sensors, wander guard door alarm sensors, bed alarm sensors and add that to the endless stream of call bells and psw’s pagers sounding, it sounding like you are living inside a firestation with non-stop fire
  • they do not provide the staff to PREVENT the resident from falling
  • bell fatigue
  • This registry is just another cash grab
  • Now, it will be that much easier to put the blame on us.
  • When we do our 1.5hrs worth of charting every night they tell us to lie and say we have done restorative care and other tasks which had no time to do so they can provide funding which never seems to result in more staff.
  • for the Cupe reps reading this. You make me sick. Your union doesn’t back us up in the slightest and you have allowed for MANY additional tasks to be put onto psw’s without any increase in pay.
  • In the past year alone our charting has become computerized and went from 25mins to 1.5hrs. We now provide restorative care like rehab workers and now are officially responsible for applying and charting for medicated creams, not to mention the additional time spent now that prn behavior meds were discontinued and restraints removed created chaos
  • when your union reps come into meeting with us to “support” us, they side with our managers
  • about this registry
  • my sister works for 12 dollars H in Retirenment home
  • she has over 40 Residents
  • you should work in Long Term Care then, you will make a few buck more, still have 30-40 residents but at least you have a partner. On the other hand though, unlike retirement homes, for those 30-40 people, you will be dealing with aggressive behaviors, resistive residents, dementia, 75% of your residents will require a mechanical lift, you will have 1-2hrs worth of charting to do on top of your already hectic work load which they will not provide you more time to complete it, so only expect to get one 15min break in an 8 hr shift and often stay late to finish your charting.
  • As long as retirement homes are privily own they will always be run under the landlord and tenant act. That’s why they can work you like a dog and get away with it.
  • My 95 year old Dad is in LTC.
  • PSW’s simply do NOT have time to maintain, let alone enhance seniors’ quality of life.
  • there are NO rules or regulations about what the ratio of PSW staff to residents “should be”
  • quality is more than assistance with daily hygene, feeding, dressing, providing meds, getting people up in the morning, putting them to bed in the evening
  • psw’s are not only caregivers/ nurses we r also sometimes ONLY friend
  • The solution to our problem begins at the top, and this all seems very backwards to me.
  • Personal support workers are one of the back bones of the health care system.
  • Eleven years later, and nothing has changed? Something’s wrong here!
  • But I will not let this discourage me from taking the course, because no other job I’ve had has even come close to being as rewarding or fulfilling
  • is to many P.S.W in Ontario,and is not respect for them
  • Too many PSW’s are working as a Casual Employee
  • The pay is better in Long Term care as we know but PSW’s work for that extra few dollars more an hour
  • Most of us enjoy the field but more work has to be done to take care of your PSW’s and a pat on the back is just not going to do it.
  • administration has to stop being greedy with their big wages and start finding more money to invest in your front line, the PSW
Doug Allan

South West Local Health Integration Network | Innovative Non-Emergency Transportation A... - 1 views

www.newswire.ca/...ansportation-approach-launched

EMS privatization

shared by Doug Allan on 28 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • This LHIN-wide approach, a first in the province, was developed with the collaboration and support of all hospital organizations in the South West LHIN.
  • Standards have now been developed for non-emergency transportation vehicles, including their on-board equipment and qualifications of drivers.
  • Prior to the implementation of this LHIN-wide approach to non-emergency transportation service delivery, there were no established standards to follow, and various transportation providers, including ambulances (EMS), were called upon to transport patients.
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  • "This non-emergency transportation approach is precisely the type of collaborative effort that will help transform the health care system in Ontario. Standardized equipment and qualifications will lead to enhanced quality of care and safety for all the people hospitalized in the South West LHIN." - The Honourable Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
  • These service standards will also help meet infection control requirements.
  • Their goals for this initiative were to: Develop transportation standards for vehicles and transportation staff; Create a standardized decision making guide to assist hospital staff to determine the most appropriate services based on the needs of the patient; and Educate users on the appropriate way to use Non Emergency and EMS transport services Select a common supplier to provide the service across the South West LHIN geography.
  • EMS services fully support this development.
  • Neal Roberts, EMS Executive Chief, Middlesex-London Emergency Medical Services Authority and Ontario Association of Paramedic Chiefs Vice President.
  • Doug Allan on 28 Jun 13
     
    Standardized qualifications for drivers.  Response to the scandal of privatized patient transfers uncovered by CBC.  But still no legislation as promised by government. 
Govind Rao

Fired workers caught in tangled web of loopholes; THIRD OF FOUR PARTS Ontario's outdate... - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246471|tost|20150518|220709726

from heather staffing health and safety Ontario legislation standards

shared by Govind Rao on 19 May 15 - No Cached
  • Toronto Star Mon May 18 2015
  • Showed up to work one day and got fired for no reason? Sorry about your luck. In Ontario, not a single worker is protected from wrongful dismissal under the Employment Standards Act. Hit with the flu and can't make it into the office? Consider sucking it up, because chances are you won't get paid. You'll be lucky to keep your job, in fact. Have to put in extra hours one week to get the job done? Whatever you do, don't expect overtime pay - or even to get paid at all.
  • Ontario's outdated employment laws, currently under review, were designed to create basic protections for the majority of the province's non-unionized workers. Instead, millions are falling through the gaps created by a dizzying array of loopholes, from the dangerous to the downright bizarre. Construction workers have no right to take breaks on the job. Care workers aren't entitled to time off between shifts. Vets aren't entitled to vacation pay. Janitors have no right to minimum wage. Cab drivers aren't entitled to overtime pay.
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  • And dozens of occupations, some that you've never even heard of, are exempt from basic rights entirely. "Keepers of fur-bearing mammals" have no right to minimum wage. Sod layers have no limits on their daily hours of work. Shrub growers don't get a lunch break. The system is so complicated that the Ministry of Labour has developed a special online tool to help decipher who's entitled to what. But as the province reviews its antiquated Employment Standards Act, critics argue that its confusing web of exemptions makes it harder for the so-called precariously employed to defend their rights - and easier for bosses to ignore them.
  • "When you distil it down to what these exemptions are seeking to achieve, really they are to give employers more control over work and more control over wages," says Mary Gellatly of Parkdale Community Legal Services. "It sends the message to employers that they can get away without complying." The Act was first introduced in Ontario in 1968 to set basic work standards, especially for non-unionized employees who don't have a collective agreement to provide extra protections. But there are at least 45 occupations in Ontario that are exempt from a variety of its fundamental entitlements, many of them low-wage jobs in industries where precarious work is rife.
  • The Ministry of Labour says many of the exemptions are "long standing" and related to "the nature of the work performed." But York University professor Leah Vosko, who leads research into employment standards protections for the precariously employed, says exemptions have come at least in part from industry pressure, leaving the Act a "complex patchwork that is difficult for workers and even officials to comprehend." Even when there are clear violations, speaking out can come at a cost. Reprisal is illegal under the Act, meaning bosses can't penalize employees for exercising their workplace rights. But the Act gives workers no protection against wrongful dismissal. Employers do not have to give cause for firing someone.
  • Unionized employees are generally protected by their collective agreements, and workers can sue employers if they think they have been unfairly terminated. But most precarious, low-income employees are not unionized, and most do not have the money to take legal action against an employer, says Parkdale's Gellatly. "It's the big reason why many people can't do anything if they're in a workplace with substandard conditions, because they can get fired without cause." Linda Wang, who worked at a Toronto cosmetics manufacturer for four years, was fired less than two weeks after asking her employer for the extra pay she was owed for working a public holiday. She says no reason was given for her termination. Wang, a mother of two, claims her employer repeatedly bullied her and her colleagues, and says she believes she was dismissed for asking for the wages.
  • She has filed a reprisal complaint with the Ministry of Labour, but Wang cannot afford to take her employer to court. "I feel the system is against workers," she says. "It's in favour of employers." "Whatever job you have, you put so much of yourself into it," adds Gellatly. "The fact that employers can just fire you without a reason is incredibly devastating for folks." The Act also contains significant gaps when it comes to sick leave and overtime. The legislation provides most workers with 10 unpaid days of job-protected emergency leave, which means they can't be fired for taking a day off due to illness or family crisis. Critics call this measure subpar by most standards, since it still causes many workers to lose a day's income for being ill. An estimated 145 countries give employees some form of paid sick leave.
  • "Unfortunately, we stand out for our inadequacy," says Brock University professor Kendra Coulter. But the 10-day protected leave doesn't apply to almost one in three of the province's most vulnerable workers. An exemption that excludes employees in workplaces of fewer than 50 people from that right means 1.6 million workers in Ontario are not even entitled to a single, unpaid, job-protected sick day. Fast-growing, low-wage sectors such as retail, food services and health care are most likely to be exempt according to a recent report by the Workers' Action Centre. While many small businesses voluntarily give their employees paid sick days, the loophole leaves many workers - especially the precariously employed - exposed.
  • Toronto resident Gordon Butler asked his employer, a small construction company in Markham, for one day off work after he sliced his thumb open on the job. He says his boss told him not to come back. "I didn't believe him," says Butler, 44, who has an 8-month-old child. "I tried to plead with him, and he said 'No, too bad.'" "The way it's stacked up right now is there are very few options for people who are in low-wage and precarious work to actually take sick leave when they're sick," says Steve Barnes, director of policy at Toronto's Wellesley Institute, a health-policy think-tank. "They not only have to worry about lost income, but the potential for losing their jobs," adds Brock's Coulter. "It's unkind and unnecessary." The stress caused by the province's meagre sick-leave provisions is compounded by exemptions to overtime pay, to which around 1.5 million don't have full access.
  • As a rule, employees should get paid time and a half after 44 hours a week on the job, according to the Employment Standards Act. But in 2014, more than one million people in the province worked overtime, and 59 per cent of them did not get any pay whatsoever for it, Statistics Canada data shows. This, experts say, is partly because enforcement is poor. But in Ontario, a variety of occupations don't even have the right to overtime pay, including farmworkers, flower growers, IT workers, fishers and accountants. Managers are also not entitled to overtime. Vladimir Sanchez Rivera, a 45-year-old seasonal farmworker in the Niagara region, says he has worked 96-hour weeks doing back-breaking labour picking cucumbers and other produce.
  • We don't have access to protections when we are working in agriculture," he says. "And our employers tell us that." Low-wage workers are even more likely to be excluded from full overtime pay coverage, according to the Workers' Action Centre's research. Less than one third of low-income employees are fully covered by the Act's overtime provisions, compared to around 70 per cent of higher earners, because they are more likely to work in jobs that aren't eligible. Workplaces can also sign so-called "averaging provisions" with their employees, which allow bosses to average a worker's overtime over a period of up to four weeks. That means an employee could work 60 hours one week and 50 the next, but not receive any overtime as long as they don't work more than a total of 176 hours a month.
  • Critics say the measure means more work for less pay, and paves the way to erratic, unpredictable schedules. "That's a huge impact on workers and their families in terms of lost income and having to work extra hours," says Parkdale's Gellatly. "It's certainly not good for workers, for their families, and it's not good for creating decent jobs in terms of rebooting our economy," she adds. For many of the precariously employed, falling through the gaps ruins lives. "Even now, when I think about the working environment, I feel very depressed," says Wang, who, 10 months later, is still waiting for the Ministry of Labour to issue a ruling on her complaint. "I feel panic."
  • Sara Mojtehedzadeh can be reached at 416-869-4195 or smojtehedzadeh@thestar.ca. By the numbers 1.6 million non-unionized Ontario employees with no right to an unpaid, job-protected sick day 59%
  • of Ontario workers who worked overtime in 2014 did not get any pay whatsoever for it 71% of low-wage, non-unionized Ontario employees don't have full access to overtime pay 29%
  • of high-income employees don't have full access to overtime pay Sources: Workers' Action Centre, Statistics Canada Proposed solutions A recent report by the Workers' Action Centre makes a number of recommendations to rebuild the basic floor of rights for workers. The proposed reforms include: Amending the ESA to include protection from wrongful dismissal
  • Eliminating all occupational exemptions to ESA rights Repealing overtime exemptions and special rules Repealing overtime averaging provisions Repealing the emergency leave exemption for workplaces with less than 50 people Requiring employers to provide up to seven days of paid sick leave
Govind Rao

Top marks for All Nations Healing Hospital - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246243|relp|20151121|234170456

from heather Saskatchewan aboriginal hospital

shared by Govind Rao on 24 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • The Leader-Post (Regina) Sat Nov 21 2015
  • The All Nations Healing Hospital (ANHH) is proving it's a cut above the rest. Accreditation Canada again has given the aboriginally owned and operated hospital, located on Treaty 4 grounds in Fort Qu'Appelle, an exemplary rating. Lorna Breitkreuz, director of client services for ANHH, said the hospital goes through the accreditation process every four years, but works to provide the best care and service possible every day.
  • Accreditation Canada is an independent, not-for-profit organization that sets national standards to ensure health facilities are meeting the needs of health quality. It accredits more than 1,100 clients and more than 5,800 hospitals and community-based sites in the public and private sectors in Canada. ANHH is measured against the same standards. Surveyors spend four days on site to review documentation, speak to staffand identify any new quality improvements, services and programs, said Breitkreuz. "They also measure our quality improvement and patient safety against national standards," she said.
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  • Prior to 2007, ANHH was accredited with the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region, but changes in the process required the Fort Qu'Appelle hospital to get its own accreditation. In 2008, ANHH met the standards and received it. Accreditation Canada surveyors returned in 2011 and, at that time, ANHH was required to do some followup work before it received exemplary standing.
  • This time around, ANHH has been accredited with exemplary standing, but with no followup actions required. This marks eight years of exemplary status, something fewer than five per cent of Canadian hospitals receive. Breitkreuz said it's thrilling news for the hospital.
  • "The public can be well assured that when they come to the hospital, they will receive the best possible care. And when they come to this organization, it has been recognized as an organization that exceeds national standards," she said. ANHH is a 14-bed rural acutecare hospital that also provides 24-hour emergency services and 24-hour lab and X-ray services. There is an on-site women's health centre with a low-risk birthing unit.
  • We were measured against six standard areas ... those include medication services, medicine management, primary-care services, infection-prevention control, governance and leadership," said Breitkreuz. "In all those six areas, we were measured against a number of standards and were one point short of perfect in every one of those areas." Despite being almost perfect, she said ANHH is continuing to consult with First Nations leadership and the public to ensure it meets the community's needs.
  • It plans to expand services for renal care because this was identified as an area where a gap existed. kbenjoe@postmedia.com
Irene Jansen

National Educational Standards for Personal Care Providers - 0 views

www.accc.ca/...contcare

care aide education standards

shared by Irene Jansen on 18 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • With the support of ACCC and its affinity group, Canadian Association of Continuing Care Educators (CACCE), Health Canada sponsored a study to develop an initial set of ‘Educational Standards for Personal Care Providers’.
  • The Standards are intended for voluntary adoption and will offer a framework for curriculum development.
  • Irene Jansen on 18 Dec 12
     
    The Reference Guide contains the national education standards. The Environmental Scan describes existing programs in 74 institutions across Canada. Note the variation in length and class:practice time in current programs, on p. 20 of the Reference Guide and in greater detail in the Environmental Scan. Of the "stakeholders" consulted, employers outnumbered workers (and among workers, half were nurses), and only five of the 414 respondents represented unions (Reference Guide p. 7).
Doug Allan

Hospitals and care homes that fail to provide basic care will face prosecution, says UK... - 0 views

www.bmj.com/bmj.f5850

hospital quality

shared by Doug Allan on 28 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • The performance of hospitals and care homes is to be subject to a new tier of inspection criteria that will include basic standards of care, such as whether an individual has been given adequate food and drink, a senior adviser at the Care Quality Commission has said.
  • Alan Rosenbach, special policy adviser at the CQC, said that providers that fail to deliver the basics will be fast tracked to prosecution under new powers awarded to the regulator. The new powers will include the ability to place providers into a “quality failure regime.”
  • the government wanted the regulator to include basic elements of care in its inspection regime.
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  • He added, “The government is very helpfully moving away from what they have given all of us to work with, which were 28 standards, which we have translated into 16 outcomes.
  • “They [the government] will consult next month on essentially a new set of standards [which] will be about the fundamentals of care—the really basic things. Are people hydrated? Are they fed? Are they supported to hydrate themselves? Are their basic care needs being addressed?
  • “These are really shocking indictments of the system when you realise just how many older people in particular simply don’t have those really fundamental needs met in a whole range of care settings.”
  • Some of the suggested criteria, which are intended to capture the diversity of care and of service providers, include cleanliness; protection from abuse and discrimination; adequate pain relief; the provision of food and drink; whether complaints are listened to; and the effective organisation of ongoing care.
  • The new standards reflect the regulator’s beefed up approach to inspection, which it announced in April this year,1 in the wake of stinging criticism of its role in the well publicised care failings at Winterbourne View, Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, and Cannock Chase Hospital.
  • Doug Allan on 28 Sep 13
     
    British hospital regulator -- the Care Quality Commission --  to expand inspection criteria.  Will include basic standards of care -- food, cleaning, hydration. "These are really shocking indictments of the system when you realise just how many older people in particular simply don't have those really fundamental needs met in a whole range of care settings."
Govind Rao

New standards for nursing homes - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk - 0 views

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/...or-nursing-homes-31137935.html

from heather ltc standards international

shared by Govind Rao on 13 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • Minimum standards apply to nursing home care providers regulated by the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority 13 April 2015
  • New nursing home standards will tackle the isolation felt by some residents in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health said.
Govind Rao

Health standards need to be more consistent - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|242663|relp|20160127|238830009

from heather Saskatchewan Day privatization

shared by Govind Rao on 27 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • The Leader-Post (Regina) Wed Jan 27 2016
  • As well should be the case, Allan Schaan's frustrations are clearly directed at the provincial health minister. It's been more than two months since Schaan and a couple of dozen other Regina heart attack victims went to the Saskatchewan legislature demanding some relief to skyrocketing fees at the University of Regina's Dr. Paul Schwann Research Centre, which they have depended on to get the physical exercise required for their recoveries.
  • The 71-year-old Schaan's heart attack occurred in August 2014, and required the insertion of a stent. As such, some might consider it a lessserious heart incident and, thus, needing less supervision. But Schaan noted no doctor ever views any heart attack as minor. "If anyone ever winds up back in hospital, it's going to cost government a heck of a lot of more," he said. What continues to be the issue is rising fees. Patients now pay $440 per three months, the consequences of a cash-strapped Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region (RQHR) cutting the $90,000 annual subsidy it was providing the Schwann Centre.
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  • The NDP Opposition has gladly taken up the cause, noting that the $440 per three-month cost is outrageously high compared with $90 in Saskatoon, $70 in Prince Albert, $60 in Moose Jaw and free services in Melville and North Battleford. However, Health Ministry officials and Premier Brad Wall's office were quick to justify the cost of the Schwann Centre because of its having extra amenities like costly physician supervision. They also pointed to the alternative of private gyms and fitness centres in Regina. Schaan noted such facilities come with their own price tag - and without the same medical supervision. "I agree, personally," Schaan said. "It (the Schwann Centre) was a bit of Cadillac program." Schaan suspects the Saskatchewan Party's eagerness to suggest private fitness alternatives is part of this government's bigger philosophical belief that to save money, it's OK to dump to the private sector services government should be providing to all residents. So after not hearing anything from the provincial government since their November visit to the legislature, Schaan and others are again putting the pressure on Health Minister Dustin Duncan to address their concerns about one of the basic principles of medicare - that it should be equal, accessible and affordable to all.
  • Schaan is right. It is ridiculous that we don't have minimum standards and expectations for something as basic as post-heart-attack care. In fairness to Duncan and other Canadian health ministers who met last week, such minimum standards continue to confound them. There are thousands of potential opportunities for inequity, and efforts to build consensus on prescription drug purchases and costs are laudable. Moreover, notwithstanding federal transfer payments and equalization, there will be disparity based on things like the quality and services provided in larger urban hospitals. And because health-care delivery is a provincial responsibility, each province - depending on its wants and needs - might have legitimately different priorities.
  • Specific to Duncan and his Sask. Party government, credit is due for setting wait-time goals to ensure some level of standards can exist. Not all those goals have been met by this government (see: emergency room wait times), but having goals and standards is always better. But even if everything from prescription drugs to specialist services can legitimately vary from province to province, one might think that within each province we would see relative consistency on something as basic as the cost and care available to heart attack patients on their road to recovery. There is something very wrong with the health system when the province thinks it can shuffle responsibility for basic cardiovascular recovery to private fitness facilities.
  • It shouldn't be up to the private sector to provide such services. Nor should the province be dumping this on the local health region or university. And no one should have to wait until an election rolls around to see that minimum standards are enforced, as Schwann Centre clientele now must do. They deserve an answer from the health minister. So far, they haven't got one. Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post.
Heather Farrow

Care staff support bill for more 1-on-1 time - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|245142|tidp|20160505|246326122

cupe Ontario ltc staffing legislation

shared by Heather Farrow on 05 May 16 - No Cached
  • The Timmins Daily Press Thu May 5 2016
  • Passing motorists honking in support of the large group of picketers outside Extendicare Timmins Wednesday, may have assumed the front-line care staff at the residence were on strike. The members of CUPE Local 3172 were actually holding the first of a three-day information picket to express their support for the Time To Care Act (Bill 188) which has passed first reading in the Ontario legislature.
  • They are hoping the private member's bill, which was tabled by MPP France Gélinas (NDP - Nickel Belt) last month will pass all three readings required for it to become law. Brenda Laronde, president of CUPE Local 3172 which represents 230 employees at Extendicare Timmins, including front-line care staff and maintenance workers, said the purpose of the information picket is to "spread awareness of Bill 188 ... If it gets passed, it will give a standard of care for all nursing home residents in long-term care. It will give them a four-hour standard of care. Right now there is no standard." Laronde explained the challenges staff at long-term care facilities have in providing the care which they feel the residents deserve. She said with staffing levels at many of these long-term care facilities, days are tightly scheduled and there is very little time to socialize with the residents.
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  • "You don't have enough time to sit and talk with them. It's always a rush. Everything has time constraints. You have to be in the dining room by 8:30; you have to be out by whenever; you have to have a shower today - I mean, that's their home. And you actually want to sit with them and talk with them, but you just don't have the time. You can't even get to know your residents. You know them by seeing them every day but you don't really get to know their background, or their history, you know, what they did before. You try to get to know them but you don't have the time to spend with them." If Bill 188 passes, all long-term care homes in the province will be required to stafftheir facilities adequately enough to provide a minimum four-hour standard of care for each resident each day.
  • Despite this being a newly introduced bill, Laronde said front-line care workers at long-term care facilities in Ontario have been fighting to have this for years. "This campaign (to legislate more time for individual long-term care residents) has been going on for many years and it's finally got a bill," said Laronde. MPP Gilles Bisson (NDP - Timmins-James Bay), explained, "It's a bill that has yet to be debated. It's been introduced. We're waiting for it to be debated." The fact the bill was introduced by a the health critic of the NDP doesn't mean the Liberals will automatically shoot it down as an act of partisan politics, said Bisson.
  • "There are a number of bills put forward, quite frankly, by members of the opposition that wind up becoming law," he said. "In fact, France Gélinas has been very successful in putting forward a number of private member's bills that the government adopted as their own bill." The Extendicare Timmins workers intend to hold information pickets again on Thursday and Friday. © 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Illustration: • Ron Grech, The Daily Press / Front-line care staffat Extendicare Timmins held an information picket Wednesday afternoon to express their support for Bill 188 which is currently going through the Ontario legislature. The NDPinitiated bill, referred to the Time To Care Act, would make a minimum four-hour daily care a legal standard for long-term care residents.
Irene Jansen

Long-term care inspection system flawed, watchdog says - 0 views

www2.canada.com/...story.html

inspections ag alberta ltc

shared by Irene Jansen on 23 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Six years after a scathing auditor general's report found unsafe and degrading conditions in Alberta's long-term care facilities, a followup review has found that Alberta Health Services still hasn't established a uniform provincewide inspection system.
  • Auditor General Merwan Saher said Tuesday that each AHS zone continues to use "different inspection tools and methods" and that a new, improved system is still on hold after six years because the government hasn't approved updated standards.
  • Saher said to fulfil the recommendation, AHS must adopt uniform inspection procedures across the province and use a single software program that will allow data to be routinely analyzed for trends.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The reminder comes six years after a damning 2005 report by former auditor general Fred Dunn, who found almost one-third of the 25 long-term care homes visited by his office failed or only partly met basic standards of care for seniors.
  • Saher also expressed concerns about staffing levels and may audit that area in future.
  • the former department of seniors and community supports has implemented a successful inspection program to monitor "accommodation standards," which complements AHS's program to monitor "care standards."
Irene Jansen

CBC.ca | White Coat, Black Art | Unfinished Business Show - 0 views

www.cbc.ca/...unfinished-business-show-1

care aide retirement homes regulation ltc ontario

shared by Irene Jansen on 23 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • we have reaction from Ontario's Minister of Health and Long Term Care to our season debut episode on personal support workers and the work they do at retirement homes in the Province of Ontario
  • personal support workers or PSWs, the subject of our full edition season debut episode back in September
  • unlike nursing homes, retirement homes operate in a regulatory grey zone.  And it's at these retirement homes where we found PSWs who say they're expected to perform duties they aren't qualified to do, like injecting insulin or administering narcotics.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • We played some of Jen's interview to Deb Mathews, Ontario Minister of Health and Long Term Care. 
  • "That is a very troubling clip you just played for me," Mathews told WCBA.  "No health care worker should ever be put into a position where they feel that they're compromising the health and safety of their patients or their own personal safety."
  • As for the operators of retirement homes that compel PSWs to perform nursing duties that they may not be qualified to perform? "Well, I would say that they're taking a very big risk," she added.  "They really should not be supporting a practice that isn't safe."
  • But if retirement homes are taking a big risk, as the Minister puts it, it's a risk that exists in part because retirement homes aren't regulated nearly as strictly as long term care facilities.  And that won't be changing any time soon.  In terms of regulations, a retirement home is little different from your own home.  
  • Irene Jansen on 23 Jan 12
     
    The story on PSWs and interview with Deb Mathews runs from minute 1:34 to minute 9:28. Mathews: I would say to the operators "they are taking a very big risk and they really should not be supporting a practice that isn't safe - they have to take that responsibility very seriously" I'm asking PSWs to "please stand up and report this". The scope of practice for PSWs is not as clear as it ought to be ... this is why we're establishing the PSW registry. It will allow us to see the training and experience of PSW - this information will be available to the public. My expertise is long-term care homes. Very high standards there. Retirement homes in Ontario are different - wide range of people. They do not fall under the Ministry of Health. Dr. Goldman: Why not regulate retirement homes? Mathews: Because they serve a very different function - e.g. for people who are very healthy but would like to have for example their meals prepared for them. They are not health care facilities the way long term care homes are. A retirement home is a home. We really do want to offer choice to people. The retirement homes determine when a person needs care they can't provide. Dr. Goldman: Regulation of PSWs?  Mathews: I don't see it any time soon. We are working with our training colleges and universities on a common curriculum. Until we have that standard training and established scope of practice, we can't take them the next step to make them a regulated health care professional.
Irene Jansen

Factory Efficiency Comes to the Hospital - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...11seattle.html

us lean tqm waits hospitals

shared by Irene Jansen on 07 Feb 12 - Cached
    • Irene Jansen
      Irene Jansen on 07 Feb 12
       
      sounds similar to what was done in a Vancouver hospital to improve efficiency of surgeries, cited in a CCPA report on public solutions to reduce waits
  • Using C.P.I., the hospital has reduced the waiting time for many surgeries from three months to less than one.
  • Lack of space in the recovery room was another logjam, and the hospital planned a $500,000 renovation to enlarge it. But a C.P.I. team saw that if a child’s parents went to a common waiting room during surgery, instead of an individual recovery room, more surgeries could be scheduled. Parents were given beepers to alert them when their child would arrive in the recovery room — and maps and colored lines on the walls helped point the way. Plans for the expensive renovation have been scrapped.
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • Medical buildings often have standard benchmarks — basing the number of examination rooms, for example, on the expected volume of patients. Ms. Brandenberg and her team instead used C.P.I. to map out common paths that patients, staff members, supplies and information would flow through. They worked in an empty office building, using cardboard mock-ups of surgical sites, recovery rooms, anesthesia areas and waiting rooms. Fifty staff members then play-acted various scenarios to test the design’s effectiveness. The final design reduces walking distances and waiting times for patients by grouping related facilities together and creating rooms that can be used for more than one purpose. The hospital was able to shave 30,000 square feet and $20 million off of the new building
  • Last year, amid rising health care expenses nationally, C.P.I. helped cut Seattle Children’s costs per patient by 3.7 percent, for a total savings of $23 million, Mr. Hagan says. And as patient demand has grown in the last six years, he estimates that the hospital avoided spending $180 million on capital projects by using its facilities more efficiently. It served 38,000 patients last year, up from 27,000 in 2004, without expansion or adding beds.
  • checklists, standardization and nonstop brainstorming with front-line staff
  • The program, called “continuous performance improvement,” or C.P.I., examines every aspect of patients’ stays at the hospital
  • The system is just one example of how Seattle Children’s Hospital says it has improved patient care, and its bottom line, by using practices made famous by Toyota and others. The main goals of the approach, known as kaizen, are to reduce waste and to increase value for customers through continuous small improvements.
  • “The health care industry could be on the verge of an efficiency revolution, because it is currently so far behind in applying operations management methodologies,” says Professor Litvak.
  • All medical centers, especially larger ones, would have significant return on investment by using operations management techniques like C.P.I., says Eugene Litvak, president and chief executive of the Institute for Healthcare Optimization and an adjunct professor of operations management at the Harvard School of Public Health.
  • Similar methods are now in place at other hospitals and health systems, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Park Nicollet Health Services in Minneapolis and Virginia Mason Medical Center, also in Seattle.
  • TO be sure, not everyone believes that factory-floor methods belong in a hospital ward. Nellie Munn, a registered nurse at the Minneapolis campus of Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, thinks that many of the changes instituted by her hospital are inappropriate. She says that in an effort to reduce waste, consultants observed her and her colleagues and tried to determine the amount of time each of their tasks should take. But procedure times can’t always be standardized, she says. For example, some children need to be calmed before IV’s are inserted into their arms, or parents may need more information. “The essence of nursing,” she says, “is much more than a sum of the parts you can observe and write down on a wall full of sticky notes.”
  • one-day strike by the Minnesota Nurses Association against six local health care corporations, including her employer, partly in protest of lower staffing levels her union thinks have resulted from hospitals’ “lean” methods
  • the Lean Enterprise Institute
  • George Labovitz, a management professor at Boston University, says there are limits to performance-improvement methods in hospitals. “Human health is much more variable and complex than making a car,” he said, “so even if you do everything ‘right,’ you can still have a bad outcome.”
  • Joan Wellman & Associates, a process improvement consulting firm in Seattle
  • examine the “flow” of medicines, patients and information in the same way that plant managers study the flow of parts through a factory
  • In a typical workshop at Seattle Children’s, a group of doctors, nurses, administrators and representatives of patients’ families set aside a 40-hour week to work through C.P.I. methods. They plot each “event” a patient might encounter — like filling out forms, interacting with certain staff members, having to walk various distances or having to wait for assistance — and brainstorm about how each could be improved, or even eliminated.
  • it never ends
  • Standardization is also a C.P.I. cornerstone. Last year, 10 surgeons at Seattle Children’s performed appendectomies, and each doctor wanted the instrument cart set up differently. The surgeons and other medical staff members used C.P.I. to come up with a cart they all could use, reducing instrument preparation errors as well as inventory costs.
Irene Jansen

HOSPITAL EMPLOYEES' UNION | Ombudsperson provides roadmap for improved standards in res... - 0 views

www.newswire.ca/...in-residential-care-facilities

continuing care bc ombudsperson

shared by Irene Jansen on 15 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • The ombudsperson has recommended minimum staffing levels and direct care hours in residential care, as well as specific and objectively measurable standards for bathing, toileting, dental care and other aspects of personal care.
  • Carter also noted that the province has not taken steps to protect those in residential care from the impacts of large-scale staff replacement and recommended that the health ministry and health authorities address this issue.
  • But instead of moving to implement these recommendations, the province has made a vague commitment to standardize benefits and protections by next year, and to embark on a two-year review of best practices in other jurisdictions.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Over the last ten years, large-scale staff turnover has been endemic in the residential care sector as a result of privatization and contracting out.
Govind Rao

Doctors now victims of policies they supported - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|245142|kwrc|20151202|234937168

from heather Ontario cupe hospital doctors cuts privatization

shared by Govind Rao on 03 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • Waterloo Region Record Wed Dec 2 2015
  • Anyone in Ontario with access to radio, TV or Facebook will have heard about the ongoing battle between the province's doctors and the Kathleen Wynne government. Having had a pay cut unilaterally imposed on them by the government, Ontario's doctors have swung into action. They've begun an aggressive campaign to let Ontarians know that Wynne's Liberals are undermining patient care.
  • How is care being hurt? Well according to the docs' social media posts, doctors are overworked. Many doctors are forced to overwork routinely, they say, and often under appalling conditions. In one example, a doctor is entering her 36th hour of work, has not eaten for nine hours, and is six months pregnant. Clearly, under such conditions no one can provide anything close to optimal levels of care.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • The doctors' campaign has, however, prompted me to wonder how it is that paying doctors more will function to alleviate conditions of overwork?
  • Also concerning is that the doctors' recent efforts to link declining levels of government investment in health care come in the wake of both long-standing and ongoing efforts to standardize, regulate and privatize care in the sector. More than this, through their organization, the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), physicians have long stood silently by and watched as other front-line workers have been forced to battle against the Dalton McGuinty and Wynne governments' efforts to freeze wages, cut hospital funding and otherwise undermine the working conditions of health-care workers, from cleaners to tradespeople to registered practical nurses and personal support workers.
  • To put matters into perspective, over the past five years, government spending on doctors has increased - in real terms - by an average of 2.5 per cent a year. Over the same period, government spending on other health-care staff has declined by an annual average of -0.5 per cent. In other words, whereas doctors have seen a 29 per cent increase to their pay over the past seven years, other health-care staff have seen their wages decline in real terms.
  • Of course, declining wages are not necessarily reflective of working conditions. In that regard, it is notable that Ontario hospitals now receive less funding per capita than hospitals in every other Canadian province. As a result, Ontario hospitals - often with the support of doctors and their representative associations - have worked to find "efficiencies" in ways that have frequently increased the workload of front-line staff, and thereby undermine the conditions these workers face and the quality of care they are able to provide patients.
  • A visit to any Ontario hospital will make clear that it's not just doctors who have been going above and beyond. Rather, workers throughout the hospital have been stretching, often under increasingly difficult circumstances, to provide excellent care with far fewer resources than are required. And like Ontario's doctors, they are failing; our hospitals are not as clean as they need to be in order to prevent the spread of hospital acquired infections, readmission rates are climbing and too many patients are forced to fend for themselves at home.
  • Ontario's doctors have nonetheless continued to push for the province to open more private surgery and procedures clinics, even as those clinics leach badly needed resources from our hospitals and undermine care in ways that have been well documented in jurisdictions like the United Kingdom.
  • Government-sponsored and doctor-supported programs that have aimed to increase the efficiency of the province's health-care system through, for example, jargon-laced policies like "continuous quality improvement" or the "health-based allocation model" have actually worked to undermine patient care. By ignoring the voices of front-line staff, many doctors and administrators have conspired to streamline and standardize care in ways that cut off key lines of communication and create a series of very predictable but nonetheless "unexpected consequences" that undermine patient care and frequently fail to generate the promised level of savings.
  • Nonetheless the OMA's recent efforts, like those of doctors throughout the province are both laudable and bang-on: there is a crisis in health care in Ontario, and the cuts that the Wynne government has imposed are having a serious and deleterious impact.
  • Those cuts, however, have hardly been focused on doctors' salaries, but have instead focused on other health-care workers and on hospitals. Ultimately, working conditions, wages and the quality of patient care have long been sacrificed at the altar of efficiency and austerity.
  • What the OMA should consider is the degree to which Ontario's doctors are now victim to the cold and careless logics of efficiency, standardization and privatization, which they both helped author and supported.
  • Until Ontario's doctors and the OMA find ways to bridge the divide that they have helped to open between themselves and other health-care workers, any improvement to their wages will not lead to long-term and sustainable improvements in our health system and the quality of care we provide patients together.
  • Michael Hurley is president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU), the hospital division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in Ontario. CUPE represents more than 75,000 health care staff provincewide.
  • Doctors are campaigning against a pay cut imposed by Kathleen Wynne's government, but Michael Hurley writes that they have supported efficiencies and standardizations in other parts of the health-care system.Sean Kilpatrick, Canadian Press file photo
Heather Farrow

Billing crackdown is long overdue - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|242663|tost|20160923|256771653

medicare fees CHT

shared by Heather Farrow on 23 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Toronto Star Fri Sep 23 2016
  • Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott has served notice that she will enforce the Canada Health Act in Quebec. Good for her. It's about time. The Canada Health Act is the federal statute governing medicare. It lists the standards that provinces must meet if they are to receive money from Ottawa for health care. And it gives the federal government the right to cut transfers to any province that doesn't meet these standards. In particular, it imposes a duty on the federal health minister to financially penalize any province that allows physicians operating within medicare to bill patients for extra, out-of-pocket fees. Successive federal governments have been reluctant to use this power. They have usually done so only when the offence is so obvious that it cannot be ignored.
  • From the Canada Health Act's inception in 1984 until 2015, Ottawa clawed back a net total of $10 million from five provinces that permitted extra-billing. Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba were the biggest offenders although Newfoundland and Nova Scotia also got nicked. Compared to the billions the federal government spent on health transfers over the period, these penalties were pittances. But they did make the point that medicare is indeed a national program. And in every province except B.C., where the issue has morphed into a constitutional court case, the extra-billing problem was apparently resolved.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • However, until now no federal government has had the nerve to take on serial offender Quebec. Quebec has been allowing its doctors and clinics to charge extra user fees since 1979. The province's current health minister, Gaetan Barrette, freely acknowledges this. In some cases, these fees were truly exorbitant. The Montreal Gazette reported last year that some colonoscopy clinics were charging patients an extra $600 for medications - on top of the publicly paid medicare fee. Many Quebecers were outraged. The provincial Liberal government's somewhat peculiar response was to pass a bill codifying the practice of extra-billing but giving itself the authority to regulate it. In March 2015, the then-Conservative government in Ottawa formally notified Quebec that it would be looking into the issue. This March, Liberal Philpott sat down with Barrette to discuss the practice. On Sept. 6, she sent her provincial counterpart a letter threatening cutbacks to Quebec's health transfer. A few days later, Barrette announced that extra billing will end as of next January.
  • It is hard to gauge the importance of Philpott's threat. User fees have become widely unpopular in Quebec. That alone may have been enough to drive the provincial government to disavow them. Still, it was bracing to see a federal health minister publicly standing up for the principles of medicare. It is not an everyday occurrence. It is particularly interesting that she targeted a province that is notoriously touchy about what it sees as federal interference. Perhaps she will do more. Certainly, more needs to be done. The latest annual report on the Canada Health Act filed with Parliament notes that private MRI clinics in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are charging user fees to patients. It says some hospitals are avoiding the ban on charging for drugs by routing the sick through outpatient clinics - which do charge. It also notes that the portability requirement of medicare, which allows Canadians to receive care outside their home provinces, is routinely ignored.
  • Quebec routinely refuses to fully reimburse other provinces that provide health services to Quebec residents. Yet it has never been penalized by Ottawa for this. Nor have an unspecified number of other provinces that, at one time or another, did the same. Except for Prince Edward Island, the report says, no province appropriately reimburses residents who obtain medical care outside Canada. Such patients aren't necessarily entitled to the full cost of their out-of-country care. But they are entitled to be reimbursed for the amount it would have cost them to be treated in their home province. To work as a national program, Canadian medicare needs two things. First, the federal government must put up enough money to give it a real financial role in the system. The 2002 Romanow royal commission suggested that Ottawa provide at least 25 per cent of medicare funding. That figure still makes sense. Second, Ottawa has to use its financial clout to enforce those few national standards that do exist. A former Liberal health minister, Diane Marleau, tried to do this back in the 1990s. She was sandbagged by Jean Chrétien, the prime minister of the day. Let's hope Philpott has better luck.
  • It was bracing to see a federal health minister stand up for medicare principles, writes Thomas Walkom.
Heather Farrow

Give nursing home residents higher care, support new "Time to Care" Bill, care staff ur... - 0 views

cupe.on.ca/care-bill-care-staff-urge-mpps

cupe ltc staffing quality health and safety campaign

shared by Heather Farrow on 22 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • TORONTO, ON — Care and nursing staff who have for over a decade called for legislated, higher care levels for Ontario’s 80,000 long-term care residents, are urging Ontario MPPs to put “partisanship” aside and support a private members Bill introduced yesterday for a daily care standard of at least four hours, that they say will provide residents care with dignity. “It’s the right thing to do. We’re urging all MPPs to come together, put aside partisan politics and vote in support of this Bill because there is broad public support for a legislated care standard for nursing home residents and because they deserve a higher quality of care,” says Candace Rennick, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) secretary-treasurer and a long-term care worker for nearly 20 years.
  • Bill 188, the Time to Care Act (Long-Term Care Homes Amendment, Minimum Standard of Daily Care), 2016 tabled by the NDP would amend the Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007 so that a long-term care home will have to provide its residents with at least four hours a day of nursing and personal support services. Nursing home residents are a highly vulnerable, aging and frail population with an increasing number diagnosed with cognitive impairments, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. There is widespread consensus and mounting research evidence that residents need a higher level of care than they are currently getting.
Heather Farrow

Legislate B.C. care home staffing, advocates demand - 0 views

www.vancouversun.com/...story.html

ltc cupe bc hospital staffing legislation violence

shared by Heather Farrow on 27 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • WEST VANCOUVER -- When Pamela Hollington placed her 80-year-mother into a nursing home she was shocked to learn there would be as few as two care aides at times overseeing 50 residents on a specialized ward for people suffering from dementia.
  • Hollington now pays for a companion to visit her mother daily to “augment staffing levels.”
  • “You see a lot of private, paid companions. This is not an indictment of the staff. I don’t know how they do it. To go to work every day knowing there are just two of them,” she said.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • possibly violent.
  • Daycare has mandated staffing levels for children in care but that isn’t the case for seniors in nursing homes.
  • Instead, administrators of B.C.’s 331 long-term care facilities can decide their own staffing needs and can choose or not choose to follow Ministry of Health guidelines.
  • Vancouver Coastal Health, for instance, follows the industry standard of one care aide at night for every 25 residents.
  • Nick Whittle, administrator of Inglewood Care Centre, said the facility is not in contravention of the industry standard. He said that besides the two care aides for the 50 residents on the dementia ward at night, there are other staff nearby should they be needed, including a registered nurse and a licensed practical nurse.
  • The Hospital Employees Union, which represents 15,000 care aides in British Columbia, said the standard being used in the industry is not enough, and chronic understaffing has reached dangerous proportions.
  • “We hear from our members routinely that they are not backfilled when they are on vacation or sick. Our members are literally rushed off their feet to the point where safety is compromised — both their safety and the safety of residents,” said the HEU’s Jennifer Whiteside.
  • Whiteside said seniors who have dementia, which sometimes includes aggressive tendencies, often strike out violently when they don’t have the support they need.
  • At the end of the day, if employers think we can address violence rates without addressing staffing, it’s not realistic. There’s a correlation between the two,” she said.
  • A HEU study of care aides in late 2014 found more than 70 per cent of its members felt they did not have enough time to comfort, reassure or calm residents they were caring for when residents were feeling confused, agitated or fearful.
Irene Jansen

Ottawa clinic infection scare a 'wake-up call' - Canada - CBC News - 0 views

www.cbc.ca/...y-ottawa-health-infection.html

private clinics

shared by Irene Jansen on 23 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Quality control concerns were raised this week when Ottawa Public Health announced that about 6,800 people have been sent registered letters informing them a “non-hospital” clinic run by Dr. Christiane Farazli didn't always follow infection prevention and cleaning protocols for endoscopic equipment.
  • Canada's medicare system is increasingly sharing patient care with privately operated clinics, due to factors including hospital funding shortfalls, efforts to reduce wait times and new screening guidelines.
  • Provincially monitored hospitals must adhere to certain quality-care standards and are regularly inspected, but private clinics generally aren't subject to the same stringent sanitation and infection-control monitoring.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • To put all of that in place requires that one looks at this as a system issue."
  • "If you're a doctor who is about to strike out on your own and open a new clinic, while you're busy picking out your office furniture, remember there's a huge chunk of [opening a clinic] — and that is equipment reprocessing … and that is the piece that can slip through the cracks," says Gardam.
  • Such high-profile failures to meet proper patient-care standards can undermine public confidence in the health-care system, notes Hugh MacLeod, CEO of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute.
  • not every province oversees private clinics
  • Pamela Fralick, president and CEO of the Canadian Healthcare Association
  • Fralick, who is part of a multi-stakeholder group discussing issues of mutual concern in the health-care system, says "there's a lack of integration in this country. When you have so many stakeholders and official bodies involved
  • "As we increasingly farm out various procedures to private-sector organizations, we have to look at if they are under the same standards," she says.
  • "I would say things have gotten better and out of crisis comes opportunity," Fralick adds.
Irene Jansen

Wage Protection for Home Care Workers - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ned-for-home-care-workers.html

home care wages labour standards us

shared by Irene Jansen on 23 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • The Obama administration proposed regulations on Thursday to give the nation’s nearly two million home care workers minimum wage and overtime protections.
  • The Obama administration proposed regulations on Thursday to give the nation’s nearly two million home care workers minimum wage and overtime protections. Those workers have long been exempted from coverage.
  • calls for home care aides to be protected under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the nation’s main wage and hour law.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • “They work hard and play by the rules,” President Obama said
  • “Today’s action will ensure that these men and women get paid fairly for a service that a growing number of older Americans couldn’t live without.”
  • These workers, according to industry figures, generally earn $8.50 to $12 an hour, compared with the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. The White House said 92 percent of these workers were women, nearly 30 percent were African-American and 12 percent Hispanic. Nearly 40 percent rely on public benefits like Medicaid and food stamps.
  • many do not receive a time-and-a-half premium when they work more than 40 hours a week. Twenty-two states do not include home health care workers under their wage and hour laws.
  • PHI PolicyWorks, a nonprofit group that seeks to improve conditions for home care workers
  • six million of the 40 million Americans older than 65 now need some form of daily assistance to live outside a nursing home. That number, government officials say, is expected to double to 12 million by 2030
  • the proposed rules, which might be modified after a 60-day public comment period
  • some companions employed by individuals for activities like helping them take walks or engage in hobbies would still be exempt from minimum wage and overtime coverage
  • estimated that Medicare or Medicaid, which cover 75 percent of the nation’s home care costs, would pay $31.1 million to $169.5 million more each year toward home care aides, which she said would represent 0.06 percent to 0.29 percent of federal and state outlays for home care
  • In 1974, the Labor Department exempted “companionship” workers from coverage under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a move that focused on baby sitters at a time when the home care industry was in its infancy.
  • In 2007, the Supreme Court issued a decision involving a New York home care aide, Evelyn Coke, who often worked 70 hours a week, ruling that she was not entitled to overtime pay under existing regulations. The court said it was up to Congress or the Labor Department to change the rules.
  • nearly 90 percent of the nation’s home care aides work for agencies
Govind Rao

Psychological Health and Safety in Canadian Healthcare Settings :: Longwoods.com - 0 views

www.longwoods.com/23643

from heather health and safety

shared by Govind Rao on 09 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Healthcare Quarterly, 16(4) October 2013: 6-9.doi:10.12927/hcq.2014.23643
  • Psychological health and safety are growing priorities in Canadian workplaces, including Canadian healthcare settings. The workplace has a key role to play in promoting mental health. The Canadian Healthcare Association recently adopted a position statement strongly encouraging members and all health stakeholders to adopt and take action to implement the new voluntary standard, outlined in Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. The Canadian Healthcare Association (CHA) recently adopted a position statement (2013) strongly encouraging members and all health stakeholders to adopt and take action to implement the new voluntary standard outlined in Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (CSA Group 2013). (On January 1, 2014, CHA is merging with the Association of Canadian Academic Healthcare Organizations [ACAHO] to create a new national health organization). Championed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada (which has applauded "CHA for its leadership on developing this position paper and highlighting the importance of psychological health and safety in the workplace" [CHA 2013, November 26]), the standard was developed collaboratively by the Bureau de normalisation du Québec and CSA Group.
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