Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) says it’s taking a close look at the results of a major survey of long-term care residents and their families released last week by the Office of the Seniors Advocate.
Isobel Mackenzie said the survey, conducted between June 2016 and May 2017, is the most comprehensive of its kind ever in Canada.
“What they are telling us is that while some are satisfied in some areas, overall, we need to be doing better, and in some cases, much better in ensuring the needs of residents are met,” Mackenzie said during an event that saw the results released in front of a crowd in Vancouver and via live webcast.
Mackenzie said the key positive responses showed 50 per cent of residents think the overall quality of their care home is very good or excellent and 80 per cent said they get the services they need.
On the negative side, 40 per cent of long-term care residents said they don’t want to be in a facility, 62 per cent said they do not get to bathe or shower as often as they want and 25 per cent say they sometimes, rarely or never get help to the toilet when needed.
About 45 per cent reported some type of isolation with no close friends in the facility, nobody to do things with and staff unable to regularly make time for friendly conversation.
When asked if there was a significant difference between the responses from publicly and privately run facilities, Mackenzie said it was not noticeable.
“We did separate the results by public and private, and overall there was not a statistically significant difference between the two,” she said. “You might find a little tick up on one question, or a little tick down – when you look overall at the totality of it, there really is no difference.”
She also said her office is still looking into how the results break down between facilities providing the recommended staffing and minimum 3.36 care hours per day and those that do not.
Mackenzie made eight recommendations, including increasing care hours and ensuring staffing levels are enforced and monitored by heath authorities.
Gavin Wilson of VCH told Coast Reporter this week that the health authority is going to review the detailed results for its facilities.
“We are also encouraging staff in all owned and contracted facilities to review their individual results with staff, residents and family councils,” he said. “Overall, facilities in VCH are performing well in a number of areas, including overall satisfaction and physician care, and less well in others.
“For example, we recognize that our staffing levels should be increased in some facilities, and that many of our facilities are old and no longer appropriate to offer the quality of care required by those living in them. We are addressing these issues through a number of projects and initiatives.”
One of those projects is a new facility for the Sunshine Coast to be run under contract with Trellis Seniors Services. Wilson said VCH is still reviewing Trellis’s request to alter the contract to change the location from Sechelt to a property in Gibsons.
