Owen Sound LTC home barred from accepting new residents less than a year after opening | CBC News

Less than a year after the province heralded its opening as a safe option for seniors, a new long-term care home in Owen Sound, Ont. has been forced to close its doors to new admissions due to serious problems found during inspections.

The province’s Ministry of Long-Term Care issued a cease of admissions order to Southbridge Owen Sound on Aug. 16 due to “significant instances of non-compliance,” a spokesperson for the minister of long-term care said. Inspection reports show those issues include residents wandering away from their rooms or the facility altogether, as well as a report of a resident lying in a room with urine on the floor left with no way to call for help.

“While the home continues to work to address and comply with outstanding compliance orders and stabilize leadership staffing, the Cease of Admission will remain in place until the Ministry is satisfied the home has come into compliance and demonstrates the ability to continue doing so,” Jake Roseman said in a statement to CBC News.

“We will continue to monitor the home closely through regular follow-up inspections and [have] ongoing contact with the operator and management company to ensure the safety and well-being of the residents currently living in the home.”

Southbridge, for its part, said in a statement to CBC News that the issues found during inspections were largely tied to the building’s opening and have since been addressed — and now officials are waiting for the ministry to look over the home once again.

“Southbridge puts resident care and wellbeing first in all that we do. Our new home in Owen Sound has been opened for nine months and we are meeting community needs, moving from the care of 50 residents to the capacity to care for 160 residents,” Executive Director Brenda Lowe said.

Province welcomed new home in December

It wasn’t long ago that the province spoke glowingly about the for-profit home. In a December news release touting its opening alongside another facility, then-minister of long-term care Paul Calandra said the 160-bed facility would give people a new place to call home near family and friends.

“Our government is fixing long-term care and a key part of that plan is building modern, safe, and comfortable homes for our seniors,” Calandra said at the time.

Recent inspection reports for the home, however, paint a different picture — with the province’s letter ordering a cease to admissions stating officials believe “there is a risk of harm to the health or well-being of residents of the home or persons who might be admitted as residents.”

The latest available inspection report for the facility lists a host of issues, including resident injuries, people leaving the home without supervision, and wait times for care that stretched on too long.

One such incident concerned a resident who was identified to have “wandering behaviours” who eloped from their area on three occasions, and was first found off the grounds of the home, as well as in a stairwell for a length of time.

In another instance, the home’s entrance had been left unattended — and this time, the resident left and was injured, and ended up having to be transferred to hospital. 

LISTEN | Breaking down problems with LTC inspections:

Report details inaction

The same resident was later found in a stairwell a third time, where it was documented that magnetic locks for doors to the home’s stairs weren’t working properly.

“When stairwells were not secure, strategies not in place to alert staff of potential exit seeking behaviour for the resident and every 15 minute monitoring of the resident not done, these inactions of the home led to actual harm to the resident and, put the resident at continued risk of injury and elopement from access to the stairwell,” the report reads.

Another incident from the report details a resident who was incontinent and left in their room with urine on the floor. The resident said their wrist alarm hadn’t been working for some time, and a pull alarm wasn’t accessible for them.

The inspector pulled the call alarm for the resident and a staff member responded several minutes later, saying they would tell housekeeping to clean up the floor.

“[The inspector] had to ask that the resident be provided care,” the report notes, and so the staff member did so and then left the area. But after several minutes the inspector found housekeeping staff for the area, and “was told they were unaware that the resident’s bedroom floor required cleaning.”

Roseman, the minister’s spokesperson, said the province “won’t tolerate any situation where residents aren’t receiving a consistent and high level of care,” and said the province is spending $72.3 million over three years to “enhance the Ministry’s inspections regime.”

A recent report from the province’s ombudsman detailed how that inspections system totally fell apart at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.