Dresden retirement home operator given ultimatum to sell

Ontario’s Retirement Home Regulatory Authority (RHRA) has revoked the operator’s license for Park Street Place in Dresden.

According to a RHRA notice to residents obtained by The Chatham Voice, as of May 29, unless the seniors’ residence is sold to a new RHRA-licensed operator, the current operator will no longer be allowed to provide care to the people living there.

When the order takes effect, it will prohibit the current owner/operator from providing the full gamut of client care, such as personal hygiene assistance and dressing, continence care, meals, as well as nursing services including dispensing medication.

The document also states that if residents plan on staying on at the home past the May deadline, they or their caregiver, will need to arrange for a private company to provide care services within the home.

“The operator of Park Street Place cannot provide these services or contract these services on your behalf,” the notice reads.

The beleaguered retirement residence has been under the gun since last September, when the retirement home watchdog investigated the facility. What they found prompted the agency to issue a management order whereby an external manager, appointed by the RHRA, was put in charge of the 48-bed facility.

Details of the original management order issued last October, as previously published in The Voice, included a litany of complaints at Park Street Place stemming from insufficient staffing.

The document indicated that issues came to a head Sept. 25, 2023. On that day, no employees were available to dispense critical medications, such as insulin, as the medications were locked up and no one had a key.

Nor was there any staff at the residence to provide “basic care,” the order said, with only a cook, a housekeeper and maintenance worker on site. The same day, a resident was injured and left untreated when they reportedly fell from their wheelchair.

The lack of staff was reported at 7 a.m., the order said, with an RHRA inspector arriving at 9:45 a.m. However, an RPN, scheduled to work later that day, came in early to assist.

The Sept. 25 complaint wasn’t the first time the RHRA has been called to Park Street Place. That same month the owner/operator was issued a warning letter stating residents were not being bathed according to schedule.

Online, Park Street Place is listed as being owned by a numbered company, citing Pushpinder Brah as its main contact. On the ErieStClairhealthline.ca webpage, Brah is listed as the facility’s executive director.

Despite repeated attempts, The Voice was unable to contact Brah as of press time. When reached by telephone, a manager at Park Street Place, who wished to remain anonymous, stated she was not “comfortable speaking with a reporter,” but said she would pass on the request for an interview to upper management.

The Jan. 22 summary order indicates the deputy registrar has “reasonable grounds” to believe the licensee has contravened provincial regulations by failing to provide “necessary care” to residents and protect them from neglect.

It goes to say the licensee is operating in a “critical state of debt” and failing to pay external providers, leading to interruptions in service and staffing levels.

The latest order stated that “the Licensee is focused on reducing expenses and is not guided by ensuring resident needs are met and resident health is safeguarded. The Licensee does not appear to have the good-faith intention or ability to operate the home” in accordance with Ministry of Health guidelines.

According to RHRA rules, the owners of a facility found to be in non-compliance can face a $50,000 fine for a first violation and a $200,000 fine for subsequent violations.

The agency also has no input into staffing decisions made at the retirement home.

Along with the RHRA, which is an independent non-profit organization, the province recently invested $72.3 million to create a 10-person investigation unit to probe allegations of negligence, abuse, non-compliance and failure to comply with ministry inspector’s orders in long-term care.

According to an Ontario government media release, the new unit’s aim is to “ensure every long-term care resident lives with dignity and experiences the quality of care they deserve.”

The unit is now active and will investigate allegations such as failing to protect a resident from abuse or neglect; repeated and ongoing non-compliance; failing to comply with ministry inspector’s orders; suppressing and/or falsifying mandatory reports, as well as negligence of corporate directors.

Minister of Long-Term Care Stan Cho said the unit will add more “more accountability in the long-term care sector and will help address the most serious forms of non-compliance.

Investigators are designated as Provincial Offences Officers under the Provincial Offences Act and will be investigating allegations under the Fixing Long-Term Care Act.

Neglect of the elderly in long-term care and retirement homes reached a boiling point in Ontario during the pandemic, with senior citizens dying at an unprecedented rate from COVID-19 and neglect. Hundreds were found to be living in filthy conditions that were exacerbated by chronic understaffing. The Canadian military was called in to assist.

Pam Wright, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Chatham Voice