This story has been bouncing around the Canadian media since last May. Camille Parent, the son of a nursing home resident, set up a hidden camera in his mother’s room for four days after she (the nursing home claimed) was assaulted by another patient. The results were appalling. Watch here:
The nursing home immediately fired the four staff members seen in the video; the contract of the director was not renewed. The police, however, have decided not to prosecute; the legal case for pressing assault charges, they said, is a lot narrower than what you or me would consider abusive.
That the standards in this nursing home are so abysmally lax is nearly beyond comprehension. Just after this particular facility opened about ten years ago, I accompanied a friend on a tour of the place. I remember thinking at the time, “If I ever need supportive care, this is where I want to go.” They had an exemplary care model, good staff/patient ratios, and a well-designed environment.
For me, it was interesting the reflex reaction of the director was to axe the employees involved, because as we all know, the best way to address issues in any health care institution is to fire employees.
Voilà! Problem fixed!
The problem with this hypothesis (i.e. the Rogue Employee Theory) is that four employees in four days with one patient displayed behaviours that were, um, sub-optimal.
No, sorry. You can’t just blame the employees, though they need to be accountable for their actions. The administration of the nursing home needs to take some (most?) of the responsibility for permitting an institutional culture where waving faeces-soiled wash cloths in patients’ faces, and canoodling in patients’ rooms is acceptable behavior.
Let’s take a look at the Mission and Values statement of the nursing home:
Our Mission
St. Joseph’s at Fleming is a non-profit long term care health provider committed to excellence in the delivery of quality care and services to persons of all faiths. Continuing the legacy of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peterborough, the Home takes pride in a model of care distinguished by compassion, dignity, respect and integrity.
Our Vision
Leader and valued partner in long term care through the use of innovation and best practices in living, learning and caring.
Our Core Values
Living
St. Joseph’s at Fleming is committed to creating a healthy living and working environment that:
[. . . ]
• Treats people with fairness and social justice
[. . . ]
Learning
St. Joseph’s at Fleming is committed to creating a unique learning environment for Residents, families, staff, volunteers and students that:
• Promotes innovation and best practices
[. . . ]
• Develops leadership and promotes teamwork
Caring
St. Joseph’s at Fleming is committed to providing exemplary physical, emotional and spiritual care to our Residents, their families, staff and volunteers. Our philosophy of care:
• Engenders trust, healing and wholeness
• Integrates best practices and innovative solutions
• Promotes individuality as well as personal and spiritual growth
• Is characterized by compassion, respect, dignity and the sanctity of life
All of which is very good, anodyne and even commonplace, and I am sure it looks very nice hanging in the front lobby. It’s pretty easy to point out where the nursing home and its employees betrayed its own mission and values, so obviously, it’s not enough. If I were the provincial investigator looking at this nursing home, my very first question would be, “How are your values exemplified in how you provide care?” In other words, how do you ensure institutional values — all those warm fuzzies listed above — align with the personal values of the staff? (Clearly, they didn’t in this case.) And also: what policies and procedures do you have in place that address abuse? What education do you give staff around patient abuse, or the issues that surround the care of cognitively impaired patients? How do you evaluate the effectiveness of that education? How do those in leadership positions role model behaviour? What processes do you have in place to care for demented patients? How do front line staff participate in the development of such processes? How do you reward/celebrate excellence? And so on.
I’m guessing the answers to most of such questions would be “a little” or “not at all.”
So who should be held accountable?
The front line staff?
Yes.
The leaders, the managers and the administrators?
Yes. Probably more so.
So what do you think? Who is to blame? Staff or administration or both?
