An Ombudsman Investigation has found that Extendicare Parkside in Regina was Unprepared for the COVID-19 Outbreak.
Ombudsman Mary McFadyen’s report says, as of last November 20, when the outbreak was declared, Extendicare only knew of two positive cases: A resident and an employee. The resident had already died. Contact tracing would later show that there were actually already 13 residents and 12 employees with COVID-19 symptoms who would later test positive. The numbers would continue to grow.
McFadyen says, “This was a tragedy. 194 out of 198 residents got COVID-19 and 39 of them died of it. Three others who got it died of other causes. 132 Parkside staff also got COVID-19.”
McFadyen did not make any recommendations to the Ministry of Health, because it has positioned itself to have no responsibility for long-term care home operations.
McFadyen found that the physical limitations of the Parkside building were well-known by Extendicare, the Health Authority, and the Ministry. As early as March 2020, the Authority and Extendicare were aware that Parkside would be in serious trouble if it were to have a major COVID-19 outbreak; but, instead of reducing Parkside’s population, so no more than two residents shared a room, the focus was on keeping a few rooms vacant to isolate COVID-19 positive residents. This, she says, was a mistake.
Given its physical limitations, McFadyen said it was vital for Parkside to prevent an outbreak – but it was badly unprepared
Based on her findings, McFadyen recommended that Extendicare: Apologize to the families of the Parkside residents who passed away as a result of the outbreak, and to all the other residents whose lives were disrupted; that it collaborate with the Authority to conduct a critical incident review of the outbreak at Parkside, that it ensure its administrators and staff comply with its own rules and the rules laid out by the Ministry of Health and the Authority; and that it ensure it has resources on site so its staff will be able to comply with all relevant infection prevention and control management.
The investigation found that the Authority generally gave Parkside reasonable support during the pandemic and outbreak; however, there were areas where oversight was lacking. McFadyen recommended that the Saskatchewan Health Authority immediately stop allowing 4-bed rooms in long-term care facilities; that it update its agreement with long-term care home operators and ensure they comply with its care-related policies, standards and practices; that it conduct detailed annual reviews of all long-term care homes to ensure they are following its care standards and report publicly on each home’s level of compliance, and that it also ensure its communicable disease prevention and control management standards and practices are being followed consistently, including completing inspections of all long-term care homes at least once a year.
McFadyen did not make any recommendations to the Ministry of Health, because it has positioned itself to have no responsibility for long-term care home operations. With total governance and spending control over the entire health system, the Ministry needs to fully implement recommendation 19 made in her 2015 Taking Care report. She said, “We strongly encourage the Ministry to make meaningful and lasting systemic and structural improvements to Saskatchewan’s long-term care system so that something like this does not happen again.”
