The public inquiry into long-term care homes is now looking into the details of how the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care determines risk levels at homes.
Philip Moorman, an appeals specialist with the ministry’s long-term care inspections branch, spoke at Tuesday’s proceedings.
Moorman was asked whether all compliance breaches were weighted in their reports in the same way. For example, would a relatively minor incident, such as not posting the daily menu in a care home, be treated with the same gravity as, say, a finding of resident abuse?
“In the current system, yes. However, we are under discussion about differentiating between high-risk and low-risk.”
Moorman also supported information from the former director of inspections, Karen Simpson, whose affidavit said that resident assessment data is first reviewed by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). By the time the ministry receives the information, it’s already four or five months old.
The inquiry is tasked with reviewing how Elizabeth Wettlaufer was able to get away with murdering and hurting patients for roughly 10 years.
In 2017, Wettlaufer was sentenced to life in prison without parole eligibility for 25 years after pleading guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder and six counts of attempt to commit murder for incidents between 2007 and 2016.
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