EDMONTON – Alberta’s health minister says he has warned the head of a national chain of seniors care homes that if his company doesn’t shape up, the province will ship them out.
“As a government we will be taking on the issue of quality in home care across the province,” said Fred Horne on Tuesday. “The deputy minister of health is going to look at the contract provisions of these new providers and is going to provide me with an assessment of whether or not they can basically, keep their commitment to Albertans. And if we find that we do not have providers that can provide the level of care that Albertans deserve and expect, we will find new providers and we will put them in place.”
Horne says he sent the message in a phone call to the head of Toronto-based Revera Inc.
“I telephoned the CEO of Rivera… and I expressed my frankly, my outrage on behalf of Albertans with respect to some of the reports we’re hearing about home care issues.”
“We’re really pleased that the minister reached out and is asking for a review,” Trish Barbato, senior vice president of home health with Revera, told Global News. “We look forward to a review.”
“We’ve served Albertans for over 20 years. Revera had a challenging period during the transition with not being able to hire enough staff for a particular region in Edmonton and we worked really collaboratively with our government partners to make the decisions on how to make sure those clients are being served.”
Barbato said there were concerns during the transition period, when AHS moved from 45 home care providers to 17 earlier this year, but that those issued have been resolved.
However, she welcomes a review, and says quality improvement is a “continuous journey” for everyone.
“We look forward to the learnings that can be shared among all providers, the government, and all partners.”
Violet MacDonald was a resident with dementia at the McKenzie Towne Care Centre in Calgary, which is run by Revera.
She died earlier this year after being sent to hospital for blood poisoning caused by bedsores that had been neglected for so long, her flesh had begun to blacken and decay.
MacDonald’s family has gone public with her death in order to help change the system so that no other senior has to endure such suffering.
“Regardless of whether or not someone refuses treatment, there is absolutely no excuse in this province for an outcome like we saw in the case of that poor resident in Calgary who passed away,” added Horne. “That, from all the information that’s been presented to me, that was a completely preventable death. It’s not acceptable in this province under any circumstances.”
Horne says he will be following up with Revera, which has 15 care facilities in Alberta.
With files from Global News
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