WRHA PCH COVID-19 Status Update

November 27, 2020

The WRHA's long-term care program funds and oversees the operations of 39 long-term care facilities, including 38 personal care homes (PCHs) and the St. Amant long-term care facility, in the Winnipeg health region.

The WRHA has implemented and is managing a comprehensive system-wide approach to protect and care for residents and staff at Winnipeg PCH facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks. This involves careful, fluid coordination with WRHA clinical management, PCH management and staff, regional programs, Winnipeg Emergency Medical Services providers, and partners such as the Canadian Red Cross.

*Please note new updates will be published to this page twice weekly.

Current status:

As of 9 am, Nov. 27, there were active COVID-19 outbreaks at 27 of Winnipeg's 39 long-term care facilities.

An outbreak is declared following the identification of one positive case in either a resident, a staff member or an external service provider (example: Agency staff).

The majority of current PCH outbreaks in Winnipeg involve a limited number of cases (fewer than 5).

Larger-scale outbreaks are currently being experienced at:

• Beacon Hill Lodge
• Bethania Mennonite Personal Care Home
• Charleswood Care Centre
• Fred Douglas Lodge
• Golden Links Lodge
• Holy Family Home
• Maples PCH
• Oakview Place
• Park Manor Care
• Simkin Centre
• St Norbert PCH

The most recent Winnipeg PCH to declare an outbreak is Charleswood Care Home, on Nov. 21.

The outbreak at Convalescent Home has now been declared resolved.

For a complete list of facilities with active COVID-19 outbreaks, please scroll to the bottom of this post.

Measures underway:

Staffing:

The WRHA is conducting a region-wide review to identify service decreases and staff who can be redeployed to meet PCH staffing demands and other priority areas. This planning is being done in partnership with Shared Health and the Provincial Recruitment and Redeployment Team (PRRT).

While this larger system-wide work is underway, urgent and emergent PCH staffing needs continue to be met by redirecting staff, primarily from Home Care, to PCHs. This includes activating the hub model of attaching PCHs to hospitals and community area offices for the sharing of staff resources.

In the past two weeks (and as of Nov. 26), 244 shifts in PCHs have been filled by 100 home care staff, who have either volunteered or been reassigned to support PCHs.

The WRHA has established a central process to manage and prioritize requests from PCHs for additional staff resources. This flexibility in the health care system allows us to focus our staffing resources on the areas of greatest need, which is necessary during these unprecedented and difficult times.

This morning our Long-Term Care program rolled out an orientation package and information session for PCHs who are orientating new staff who have been redeployed to PCHs.

We anticipate the first cohort of 23 graduates of Red River College's new health care aide micro-credentialing program will begin their studies next week, and be available for deployment to PCHs starting as early as December 7.

The WRHA's medical director for long-term care is working with the Nurse Practitioner Association of Manitoba to contact NPs interested in assisting with the medical monitoring of PCH residents.

On-site supports to PCHs and resident care:

WRHA onsite clinical leads continue to provide support at Golden Links Lodge, Maples PCH, St. Norbert PCH, Holy Family Home and Simkin Centre, and this week also started supporting Fred Douglas Lodge, Park Manor and Charleswood Care Centre.

These site leads are working with the management of each of these facilities to provide oversight and guidance on resident/ clinical care aspects, staff scheduling, infection prevention and control practices, and family communication.

The Canadian Red Cross has undertaken infection prevention and control assessments at a number of sites, most recently at Holy Family Home, and continues to have staff onsite on a daily basis at Maples PCH. The Canadian Red Cross began onsite work at Golden Links Lodge Nov. 26 and at St. Norbert PCH Nov. 27

PCHs continue to access the WRHA community intravenous (CIVP) team, palliative care team, regional infection prevention and control staff, and respiratory therapy specialists.

Regular physician coverage and medical monitoring of residents continues to be provided onsite and virtually at the priority sites.

Fit-testing within all licensed Personal Care Homes and Long Term Care (LTC) facilities experiencing a COVID-19 Outbreak is being undertaken. On November 23, 2020, an accelerated schedule of fit-testing throughout the Long Term Care sector began. Internal fit-testing resources are expected to increase to up to seven days per week wherever possible and external resources have been contracted to support this work.

WFPS's rapid response EMS team is not currently in place at any Winnipeg PCHs. Standard protocols for PCHs to contact EMS for resident care when required remain in place, as per usual. We want to thank our EMS partners for their support of PCHs.

Facility-specific information:

While still facing challenges, Maples PCH, Simkin Centre and Golden Links Lodge are beginning to see their staffing levels and case numbers stabilize. A number of residents at Golden Links Lodge are expected to recover shortly. Parkview Place has made significant progress with its staffing and case numbers.

The WRHA is closely working with and monitoring the situation at Park Manor Care and Charleswood Care Centre with increasing COVID-19 resident and staff cases. Cohorting plans are being implemented in these sites. As a result of staff illness, staffing at these sites are critically challenged and active measures are in place to fill shifts going into the weekend.

The outbreak at Convalescent Home was declared resolved on Nov. 26.

PCHs continue to make progress on implementing IP&C recommendations from the Canadian Red Cross and other action items identified by WRHA clinical site leads.

Management and Oversight

Daily update calls with the management teams of all PCHs and the WRHA long-term care program have been established to share information, progress and challenges in real-time.

The WRHA clinical leads providing oversight at PCHs in greatest need have daily meetings with WRHA leadership, to give detailed updates on the status of their respective facilities, and to ensure resources are proactively directed to areas of greatest need. These clinical leads will be rotated to other sites or provide support to a cluster of sites, as needed.

Winnipeg PCHs currently experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks (as of Nov 27, 2020)

• Actionmarguerite St Boniface
• Actionmarguerite St Vital
• Beacon Hill Lodge
• Bethania PCH
• Charleswood Care Centre
• Concordia Place
• Deer Lodge Centre (LTC)
• Fred Douglas Lodge
• Golden Links Lodge
• Heritage Lodge
• Holy Family Home
• Lions Personal Care Centre (Sherbrook Street location)
• Maples PCH
• Middlechurch Home
• Misericordia Place PCH
• Oakview Place
• Park Manor Care
• Parkview Place
• Pembina Place
• Poseidon Care Centre
• Riverview Health Ctr (LTC)
• River East
• Simkin Centre
• St Amant (LTC)
• Southeast PCH
• St Norbert PCH
• Tuxedo Villa