The province is launching a new program to inspect long-term care homes and ensure they are complying with the requirements set out by regulation and by the Program Guidelines for Special Care Homes.
About 20 homes will be inspected in the beginning, reflecting an urban-rural balance of small, medium, and large homes. Ministry of Health inspectors have already begun, and expect to have the initial inspections completed by the end of March 2022. Long-term care homes will be regularly inspected on a three-year cycle.
Saskatchewan has 151 long-term care homes and 10 other facilities with long-term care beds. Moose Jaw has three long-term care homes: Pioneer Lodge, Extendicare Moose Jaw, and Providence Place.
Pioneer Lodge is operated by the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA). It has 60 long-term care beds. It has struggled with COVID outbreaks during the pandemic, but a report from a tour by SHE executives in Sept. 2019 showed that Pioneer Lodge had the least noted areas of improvement among long-term care homes in Moose Jaw.
Extendicare Moose Jaw has 110 long-term care beds. It is under SHA operation after a damning Ombudsman report on Regina Parkside Extendicare found that the facility had failed in almost every way to protect its residents from COVID-19. The report also stated that the facility had been overcrowded for at least a decade and that Extendicare and the SHA were aware of that issue.
Extendicare Moose Jaw had its own COVID outbreak in November last year. The province has subsequently ended its contract with Extendicare and taken over the management of its facilities.
Providence Place has 160 long-term care beds. It is owned and operated by Providence Place for Holistic Health, a division of Emmanuel Health, which is a Catholic Health Organization. Providence Place had its own COVID outbreak last November.
The new long-term care home inspections will build on initiatives that monitor homes’ performance. Ministry of Health inspectors will assess their compliance with guidelines, regulations, and policies, focusing mainly on resident care and resident-centred work.
