WRHA PCH COVID-19 Status Update
February 22, 2022
The WRHA’s long-term care program funds and oversees the operations of 39 long-term care facilities (LTCs), including 38 personal care homes (PCHs) and the St. Amant LTC health 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 coordination with WRHA clinical management, PCH management and staff, regional programs, and community partners.
Current status:
As of 12:00 p.m., Feb. 18, there were 14 LTCs with a declared active COVID-19 outbreak among Winnipeg’s 39 LTC facilities.
For COVID-19, an outbreak is defined and declared with a total of two cases (staff, resident, visitor), epi-linked within 14 days of each other, and where at least one could have been acquired in the long-term care site.
An outbreak may be declared over after one incubation period without any new cases following the isolation of the last case, which aligns with the guidance for acute-care facilities.
New provincewide guidance took effect Feb 2, allowing for unit-specific outbreak management at long-term care facilities. This change, which aligns with existing practice in the acute-care sector, is now reflected in the list of long-term care facilities in outbreak located at the bottom of this post. For information on unit-specific operational measures, please contact the long-term care facility directly.
For a complete list of facilities with active COVID-19 outbreaks, please scroll to the bottom of this post.
Measures underway:
Please note that changes to public health orders announced Friday, February 11 and effective beginning Monday, February 15 do not apply to health care facilities. More information on measures underway at PCHs is available below.
Visitation
Provincewide visitation guidance was revised February 16, expanding to include General Visitors.
Designated Family Caregivers will continue to have access to facilities provided they pass all screening requirements. General Visitors will be able to resume visitation in WRHA PCHs on Tuesday, February 22.
Restrictions on visitation will remain in place for facilities or units experiencing outbreaks.
Please contact individual PCHs directly for information on their current visitation procedures. For the provincewide guidance on visitation, please click here
Staffing
Staffing has been challenged across the region over the past few weeks, and has been affected by staff sick calls as the Omicron variant spreads through our community, including to PCH staff who have tested positive for COVID or are isolating as a close contact or while awaiting test results.
PCHs have been advised to review their pandemic staffing plans, along with the Provincial Long-Term Care Pandemic Plan, and to implement service delivery and staffing strategies to mitigate the risk.
We continue to monitor staffing closely. Processes are in place to redeploy staff from other WRHA service areas to PCHs, as required and available, to PCHs experiencing an outbreak. We are also working with the Provincial Recruitment and Redeployment Team (PRRT) to assist PCHs in need of extra staffing supports.
The PRRT supports staffing needs in facilities (not solely PCHs) across the province by deploying health care staff who have been recruited to work casually in a variety of roles. PCHs are encouraged to first submit requests for staffing support to the PRRT to access available casual staff support before seeking redeployment resources.
Within the WRHA, if PRRT resources are not available to meet the request, PCHs can submit their requests to the WRHA COVID Response Unit, and access staff who are redeployed from our Community Health teams (Home Care, Palliative Care, Primary Care) to PCH.
Staffing is a limited resource, particularly with current levels of COVID-19 in the community impacting health care workers. Where redeployment requests are not able to be fulfilled, our region works directly with the PCH to determine how best to support their needs and ensure ongoing safe resident care.
On-site supports to PCHs and resident care
WRHA Infection Prevention and Control coordinators are providing support to sites in outbreak, and a WRHA clinical lead continues to be available to all homes as needed to provide a review of risks within the facility and suggest mitigation measures.
The majority of PCH residents in Winnipeg have received their booster (third) dose of the COVID-19 vaccine (94.3% of Winnipeg PCH residents, as of Feb 9). Forty-nine deaths have been reported in association with the current outbreaks*. PCHs report that the majority of COVID-positive residents are experiencing mild symptoms.
*Deaths are reflected in this count if residents who passed away tested positive for COVID, but not all are necessarily causal due to COVID.
Revisions to the provincewide Infection Prevention and Control guidance for Personal Care Homes were posted January 21, 2022. The WRHA will implement this guidance to help facilitate safe admissions to PCHs during an outbreak.
Infection Prevention and Control measures that are implemented at PCHs with declared outbreaks include:
- Enhanced droplet/contact precautions
- Active case finding
- Specimen collection
- Increased environmental cleaning
- Education (e.g., hand hygiene, PPE, outbreak measures)
- Restricted visitation
- Additional signage used
- Cease group activities
- Dedicated equipment
- Increased auditing (e.g., hand hygiene, PPE, etc)
Management and Oversight
The management teams of the WRHA long-term care program and of PCH sites experiencing an outbreak meet daily to share information, progress and challenges, and problem-solve in real time. PCH operators share site-specific observations and learnings to support the delivery of system-wide long-term care across the region.
Winnipeg LTC facilities currently experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks (as of Feb. 18, 2022):
(For information about which units are in outbreak, or for unit-specific operational measures, please contact the long-term care facility directly.)
- Actionmarguerite St. Boniface – 1 unit
- Beacon Hill Lodge – 1 unit
- Calvary Place – 1 unit
- Fred Douglas Lodge – 4 units
- Golden Links Lodge – 2 units
- Meadowood Manor – 3 units
- Park Manor – 1 unit
- River East PCH – 2 units
- River Park Gardens – 1 unit
- Riverview Health Centre – 3 units
- St. Amant (LTC) – 1 unit
- The Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre – 1 unit
- Tuxedo Villa – 2 units
- West Park Manor – 1 unit