(File photo courtesy of © Can Stock Photo / stokkete)(File photo courtesy of © Can Stock Photo / stokkete)
Chatham

Health Care Staff Face Impending Layoffs At Chatham Nursing Home

A nursing home in Chatham that was recently cited by the Ministry of Health for improper staffing practices, is now slated to lay off almost 50 frontline staff.

Copper Terrace Long Term Care Home is expected to downsize 45 registered practical nurses and personal support workers by the beginning of August.  Registered nurse positions are not expected to be impacted by the layoffs. The nursing home, which is operated by APANS Health Services, currently has around 200 staff members including those in nursing, dietary and housekeeping.

APANS CEO Mary Raithby told BlackburnNews.com on Thursday that the layoffs are a result of a decrease in funding from the government due to a change in the home's Case Mix Index, which is a complex formula that the Ministry of Health uses to calculate how much a facility receives.

"Our focus is and always has been... resident care. So we'll be working really hard to make sure we're hitting those priorities for resident care," she said. "Our staff does an amazing job every day with our residents and this is not a reflection of them or of the care; it's strictly related to our funding."

Raithby added the cut in funding is also a result of a decline in occupancy.  Copper Terrace currently sits at 94% resident capacity, she said.

"In order to receive full funding, we need to be 97% or above," said Raithby.

The 3% difference works out to four empty beds at the 138-bed nursing home.

Raithby said layoff notices have been sent out to some employees, but they have since been put on hold until APANS meets with the employee union next week.

"Just to make sure we've done it properly and the right people have been impacted," she said. "What we're trying hard to do and what our focus is always on is to reduce hours and shifts, rather than people. So they may have less hours, but we're trying to keep the people... Layoffs are hard, any reduction is hard, but we believe there's value to people having jobs, even if the hours are reduced."

To ensure staff levels are met, Raithby said they will be turning to agency nurses, which are outsourced temp nurses who come from an outside agency to work at the nursing home.  She said APANS has already selected a company that Copper Terrace will utilize for agency nurses, in the event that in-house staff decline call-ins or overtime shifts.

"We try really hard not to use agency nurses, whether they're PSWs or registered nurses, for a number of reasons. One [of which] being continuity of care. They're not familiar with our residents and our organization," she said.

According to the Ministry of Health, Copper Terrance is one of two long-term care homes in the municipality with a performance level listed as "improvement required". The status is based on the nursing home's resident quality inspection (RQI) from 2017.

A more recent RQI that was published by the ministry on May 28, 2018, shows that the home has been issued a total of 20 citations this year for not complying with the province's Long-Term Care Homes Act (LTCHA).

In particular, a ministry inspector reviewed the staffing schedule after an anonymous complaint was made about the home not having a registered nurse in the building at all times, which is required under the LTCHA. During part of the month of February and throughout much of the month of March, there were several days where an RN was not present for up to eight hours.  The shift was usually covered by a less experienced registered practical nurse.

According to a source who works within the home, around 17 of those registered practical nurses were among the staff at Copper Terrace who have already received layoff notices.

"We're concerned about it, but at the end of the day, I don't have a lot of options," she said. "I don't have an answer, but I know it's something as a community and we as the general public need to figure out, because all of us are going to need nursing at some point."

According to the Ministry of Health, the province is continuing to monitor Copper Terrace for "several areas of concern" including an "increasing number of complaints and incidents where residents are harmed or at risk of harm".

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