Staff Shortages Cited as Reason for Influx of Medication Errors at Au Chateau

46 Incidents were reported in 3 months. Naloxone used 5 times.

During the same meeting that the Director informed the board that at least 7 staff are on unpaid leave because of COVID mandates, we learn of a surge in medication incidents attributed to “staff shortage”.

In the last two months, the administration of Au Chateau in West Nipissing has been under a lot of pressure to defend it’s controversial COVID-19 related policies.

In January after trying to prevent unvaccinated caregivers from visiting their loved-ones indefinitely, the board of directions of this LTC home forced the administrators to allow them back in.

A month later, the most vocal board member in opposition of all COVID mandates was abruptly forced out of her position as the chair by the mayor under pressure from the head of the organization.

Councillor Anne Tessier had advocated to allow all caregivers the right to visit their family members after a 14 month absence. She then called for the board to review the unnecessary requirement that staff receive at least 3 COVID shots to work at the home.

Just before being stripped of her chair, Tessier had brought up serious issues at a municipal council meeting regarding inadequate patient care. The lack of care was one of Tessier’s motivation for wanting all unnecessary COVID mandates scraped.

As I have reported many times, the vast majority of Ontarians under 40 have chosen not to take 3 COVID shots making them ineligible to work or volunteer at Au Chateau.

In the following months, the Director of Au Chateau, Jacques Dupuis has repeatedly stuck to 3 bold claims:

• That there are no shortages of staff.

• That residents receive adequate care.

• That COVID mandates have not impacting staff levels or levels of care.

While simultaneously trying to defend these absurd statement at the May 17th board meeting, Mr. Dupuis informed his board that:

“7 employees refused to take the C19 therapeutics and were suspended without pay”

46 Medication Incidents in 3 Months

You might not believe it but his ridiculous contradictory statements (that the rules didn’t affect staffing but that 7 staff were fired) was topped a little later in the May 17th meeting.

An important item on that agenda was the quarterly Medication Incident Report for the organization that delivered some very troubling statistics. This report which is conducted by a third-party inspection service reported that Au Chateau had 46 incidents in the last 3 months of 2022. That works out to an annual average of more incidents than there are residents in this home.

The data of this report was called into question by Ministry Appointee Catherine Neddow.

The highest reason for medication incidents was “omissions”.

When the inspector got to the reasons found that contributed to these errors he or she stated “staff shortages” as one of the key culprits.

Another striking bit of information disclosed in this report was that the Opioid Overdose-Reversing drug Naloxone had to be administered at the home 5 times during the 3 month period.*

*I tried to find previous reports or comparables to other LTC homes to put this into context however I was unsuccessful.

Board member Neddow tried to further the discussion on this topic but Director Dupuis appeared to block debate and stated he did not have answers.

Upon follow up of this matter with Neddow, she informed me that she requested this item be added to the next agenda to have a more in depth conversation on the surge in medication incidents and the use of Naloxone.

At the May 17th meeting, Neddow as well as municipal councillor Fern Pellerin both wanted to allow much needed staff back to work by rescinding the outdated COVID rule.

FACT: Unnecessary COVID Mandates Lead to REAL Staff Shortages and Lack of Care

This is no longer about science or following public health guidelines. This is no longer about who was right and who was wrong about the COVID shots. This is just about getting our elderly population the care they deserve.

There is a staff shortage. There are issues in the level of care given to seniors. Au Chateau even admitted to it in their Strategic Plan when they stated.

“Prior to COVID-19, PSW’s could barely keep up with the demands of caring for residents. This created frustration and concerns among staff that proper care was not always provided. With COVID-19, this unacceptable workload added to an already cycle of neglected residents.”

Check it out for yourself here (end of page 9)

There are at least 7 health care heros in this town that could go back to work tomorrow.

Let them…

Please reach out to your city councillors who sit on the board of this municipality managed home. Tell them to put the residents and staff ahead of the stubborn administrators.