Homes well-positioned for coming trends

Teams getting education, skills needed in changing landscape

September 7, 2012 -- Deron Hamel

OMNI Health Care long-term care homes are preparing for the future; a future with different resident demographics and new nursing skill sets.

While long-term care homes will always have a role to play within the greater health-care continuum, the role homes are playing is largely changing from one of caring for seniors during their late stage in life to illness prevention, addiction treatment and specialized care.

Providing care to the senior population will always be part of long-term care’s mandate, but as we see younger residents with more complex needs turning to long-term care, homes are largely becoming what West Lake Terrace administrator Mary Lynn Lester recently dubbed “mini hospitals.”

Lester cites the training the Prince Edward County long-term care home receives from the local Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) as an example of how the home is staying ahead of the curve.

“I think we’re keeping up quite nicely,” she says. “OMNI is also providing training and the access centre is now getting on board with training, and if you’re willing to take someone with a need that your staff members are not trained for, there is training out there.”

Peterborough’s Riverview Manor has identified peritoneal care as an area the home can make a difference in to people living in the community — and the greater health-care system.

In recent years Riverview Manor has seen an increasing number of residents requiring peritoneal dialysis, a treatment for chronic kidney disease that helps control fluid and electrolyte levels.

The home is submitting a funding application to the Central East CCAC for peritoneal-care training, a move that would not only address the needs of some residents, it would also help relieve pressure on the acute-care system by reducing hospital transfers.

“Long-term care (costs less) per diem than a hospital stay,” says administrator Mary Anne Greco, adding that avoiding hospital transfers also enhances quality of life.

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