SHR tries new fixes for long-term care bed shortage

The Saskatoon Health Region is pursuing some "creative" solutions for its shortage of long-term care beds.

In two separate pilot projects, administrators freed up beds during the past year. In one, 14 patients in long-term care whose conditions had improved were moved to assisted-living suites outfitted with the specialized equipment and level of care they would need.

In the second, called direct client funding, 25 patients with a desire — and the family support — to move home were assisted in doing that.

"We provided not only the human resources but also the financial resources to set up their own care plan," said Shan Landry, vice-president of community services for the health region.

For many patients, moving home isn’t an option, said Landry. But for some, it’s what they want more than anything.

"The direct client funding program has made a huge difference in mom’s life," wrote Pauline Stark in a testimonial provided to the health region. "It has allowed her to return to familiar surroundings with the support of family and a full-time caregiver. She has a brother and many friends who live in the same condo complex. Maintaining regular contact with them has certainly lifted her spirits."

Some of the patients who were moved back into their homes were palliative patients facing a terminal illness, said Landry. She said their families told the region that being able to die at home allowed for a better quality of life during their loved one’s last days.

Landry said the health region is in the process of evaluating the programs to see whether they should be implemented on a more permanent basis. The cost of the project won’t be known until the evaluation is complete, she said.

One of the benefits to the direct client funding program is that it, in effect, creates more beds in the system without the overhead cost of actually building more beds, she said.

The waiting list for long-term care beds peaked at more than 100 about a year ago. Each month, there were 50 or 60 people taking up acute-care hospital beds while they waited for a placement.

"Our waiting list was growing longer and longer," Landry said. "And about half of those people, while they’re waiting, have ended up waiting in hospital beds — not in the community — because their care needs are so great that they can’t be managed at home."

While patients are being moved into 67 new beds at Oliver Lodge this month — and another 100 beds at the Amicus-run Samaritan Place will open in early 2012 — those beds still won’t meet the region’s needs, Landry said.

Currently, there are about 50 people on the wait list and about 25 of those are in acute-care hospital beds while they wait.