Why Were There More Deaths in Older Care Homes?

Thursday, July 30, 2020

The Scarborough Mirror - North Edition (ON) • p. 1,4 • 979 words Source name The Scarborough Mirror - North Edition (ON) Source type WHY WERE THERE MORE DEATHS Press • Newspapers Periodicity IN OLDER CARE HOMES? Weekly MIKE ADLER Geographical coverage Local Origin Torstar file photo Toronto, Ontario, Canada xtendicare Guildwood, a Scar-

borough nursing home, started Relatives of Extendicare Guildwood p. 1 p. 4 as a motel and has few single residents pause during a June 12 rally in E front of the Scarborough nursing home to rooms. honour residents who died during an outbreak of COVID-19. Scarborough Health Network, now tem- porarily in charge, reported recently the possible. Instead, she argued, manage- home is "less than ideal to prevent the ment "left them to die." spread of infection between residents" and its "tight spaces" make physical dis- See SCARBOROUGH, page 4 Three or tancing difficult. four-bed "ward rooms" are part of many aging nursing homes across North York, Two people whose relatives were resi- Scarborough and Etobicoke. dents say its medical director, Dr. Eric Kaziuka, told them management knew it Like Extendicare Guildwood, these old- wouldn't be able to isolate COVID-pos- er homes were built to standards set for itive residents properly. 1972, when many nursing home residents were younger and abler. "The home just isn't set up for that," is what Jeanine Skretas remembers Kaziu- Known as "C" bed facilities, these ka said to her and Michelle Wilson dur- homes are also where COVID-19 out- ing a May 19 telephone conversation. breaks were costliest in lives.

Kaziuka couldn't be reached for com- In Scarborough, Altamont Care Com- ment through Extendicare or his Scar- munity (53 resident deaths) is a "C" borough offices. home, as is Extendicare Guildwood (48 deaths, seven others recorded as non- Asked about Kaziuka's alleged opinions COVID-19) and Seven Oaks (41). about isolation in the home, Extendicare in a written statement did not comment Scarborough's Midland Gardens Care on this, but said the "structure of the Community, a home with "B" beds — home" and loss of staff during the out-

© 2020 The Scarborough Mirror - North Edition (ON). break made the situation "exceptionally Continued from page 1 which "substan- All rights reserved. The present document and its difficult to manage." usage are protected under international copyright laws tially exceed" 1972 requirements but and conventions. don't meet contemporary standards — Skretas, whose father died on May 23, Certificate issued on September 28, 2021 to Démo TK for had 42 deaths. personal and temporary display. said Extendicare could have installed news·20200730·ISI·a0001118245 extra resources to make better isolation In North York, Hawthorne Place lost 51

This document is destined for the exclusive use of the individual designated by Démo-–-TK and cannot be used for any other purpose or distributed to third parties. • All rights reserved • Service provided by CEDROM-SNi Inc. 1 residents to COVID-19, while at Term Care Association CEO Donna La Marca wrote earlier this month that Downsview Long Term Care Centre, 64 Duncan, in a recent interview, adding her mother's personal space included a died. few facilities were rebuilt since 2007. shared closet.

In Etobicoke, Eatonville Care Centre The association represents most Ontario "They often would lose my mother's (42 deaths) and Humber Valley Terrace nursing homes, including forprofit and clothes and I would find her with some- (36) are also "C" facilities. not-for-profit providers. one else's clothing," she recalled. Re- making older homes is "at the bottom Facility age isn't the whole story. Newer Measures taken during flu seasons in of the priority list in many countries," or retrofitted nursing homes in Toronto's older homes "really were no match" for partly because few people plan to live in inner suburbs also had deadly outbreaks, the coronavirus. With homes at capacity such places, said Pat Armstrong, a York and many "C" homes managed to stop there was little ability to move residents University sociology professor. outbreaks without loss of life. around, Duncan said. Studying long-term care for a book, Still, it is only homes built since 1998 "There was no place left to move them Armstrong met Norwegians shocked by which don't have rooms with three or to." four-bed rooms; theirs were all private, four beds or other features which make she said. isolating the virus more difficult. On July 22, Extendicare said it will limit occupancy in four-bed rooms to two res- Rather than just "tear it down," Arm- Researchers based at Toronto's Mount idents in anticipation of a second wave, strong said, Ontario needs multiple Sinai Hospital looked at Ontario Long- and that it had recently applied to re- strategies to create flexibility in struc- Term Care (LTC) outbreaks between build all of its "C" bed homes. tures. A fourbed room, for instance, can March 29 and May 20. become a double with a bathroom. Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Using simulations, the team, led by Dr. Ontario Health Coalition, a network of Providing staff with spaces to eat or Nathan Stall, found converting all four- more than 400 grassroots community or- change clothes, so they aren't taking bed rooms to two-bed rooms would ganizations, said for-profit companies, contamination in or out, is important, have averted 19 per cent of COVID-19 which own many older homes in Toron- she said. infections and deaths. "Reducing crowd- to, haven't brought homes up to stan- ing in nursing homes could prevent fu- dards, though governments offered them Armstrong believes better LTC for se- ture COVID-19 mortality," they ad- money over two decades. niors is a human right. Because we'll vised. have to raise taxes to improve it, she's "They're running them as they are be- worried Ontarians will lose interest, Ontario's government appeared to draw cause they can," argued Mehra, who thinking, "What's the big deal?" similar conclusions. thinks the province should move such homes into public ownership. STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Re- It told homes not to place new residents porter Mike Adler wanted to explore the into ward rooms. On July 15, it an- Alessandra Lamanna- La Marca remem- connection between COVID-19 out- nounced a "modernized funding model" bers the slow, shuddering elevator to the breaks and older nursing home design. to rebuild older homes, including grants third floor of North York's Hawthorne to cover municipal development Place, its stifling heat in summer, and [email protected] charges. the urine smells outside her mother's four-bed room. "Murky," convoluted and lasting three to Figure: five years, the province's former capital That room had one shared bathroom, Lamanna family photo renewal program for homes wasn't vi- where her mother's wheelchair wouldn't able, and in Greater Toronto land costs fit. Alessandra Lamanna-La Marca relaxes were "prohibitive," said Ontario Long in 2013 with her mother Maria Luisa Ward rooms can be crowded. Lamanna-

This document is destined for the exclusive use of the individual designated by Démo-–-TK and cannot be used for any other purpose or distributed to third parties. • All rights reserved • Service provided by CEDROM-SNi Inc. 2 Lamanna, who died at North York's Hawthorne Place Care Centre during a COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.