Watchdog to probe monitoring of nursing homes

TORONTO—Ontario’s watchdog will probe whether the governing Liberals are doing enough to protect the 75,000 elderly residents of the province’s long-term care homes or instead confining facilities to a “straitjacket of piddly rules,” ombudsman Andre Marin said yesterday.
Following an investigation by The Canadian Press which found three-quarters of the province’s homes consistently have failed to meet the government’s 400 standards of care since 2004, Marin said public confidence in nursing homes is shaken and Ontario’s elderly deserve better.

An analysis of inspection reports from April, 2007 to March this year by The Canadian Press found some homes repeatedly failed to give residents the minimum two baths a week while inspectors encountered other seniors wallowing in “foul-smelling” and “bulky” diapers.
“I don’t think anyone disputes the fact that there are a lot of questions surrounding how these long-term care facilities operate and how they are monitored by the government,” Marin said at a news conference.
“Wherever you look, I certainly sense a general dissatisfaction with how this sector is operating.”
Marin’s office has been laying the groundwork for a formal probe for more than a month, sifting through over 100 complaints he’s received this year about long-term care homes and dozens more that have come in since he started his “pre-investigation.”
Unlike his counterparts in Alberta, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and the Yukon, Marin doesn’t have the power to directly investigate Ontario’s publicly-funded long-term care homes.
But he said he can touch on the “tip of the iceberg” by looking at how the province monitors homes, and whether they’re in a “no-win situation” as a result of “piddly bureaucratic rules that have no rhyme or reason.”
Long-term care homes are expected to satisfy 400 rules relating to everything from the temperature at which food must be served to ensuring a clean, safe and respectful environment for residents.
Ontario’s homes argue the government’s many standards are unrealistic—often more concerned with whether forms were filed correctly than with the actual quality of care residents receive.
There may be some truth to that, but some long-term care operators are “protesting too much,” Marin said.
“We’ve heard a lot of squawking, bleeding, and foot-stomping and that is of concern to me, as well,” he said. “These people need to know that there is $3 billion given to the government to run these places.
“This is not money that doesn’t have strings attached.”
Janet Lambert, executive director of the Ontario Long-Term Care Association, said homes welcome the investigation if it prompts the province to boost staffing and funding in nursing homes, as well as whittle down standards to focus less on paperwork and more on resident care.
“There are a lot of very good things happening in long-term care,” she said. “There are exceptions that are unacceptable and that need to be corrected.”
lan Findlay, spokesman for Health minister David Caplan, said the minister wasn’t available to comment but “welcomes the ombudsman’s advice.”
Marin said he expects to conclude his investigation and report back with recommendations by January.