Staff have 'stepped up tremendously' in Grey County's long-term care facilities

The executive director for long-term care in Grey County reports staff have been preparing for COVID-19 since January and continue to increase protections on a daily basis.

“Directives are changing continuously, and so I have asked the homes to also submit a daily report,” said Jennifer Cornell during a virtual meeting of the long term care committee of management on April 9. “With this, we are able to then have a daily summary of what the impact is on the home. It covers a number of areas, from PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] supply, staffing challenges, screening initiatives, to any notes on impacted staff or residents. That has been a very helpful tool.”

Cornell says screening protocols at the homes have been in place since the SARS outbreak in 2003. However, everyday the department has been implementing new COVID-19 protection measures. This week staff have been asked to create isolation areas.

“The homes have also created a two-team leadership schedule and have created backup for each of their positions,” Cornell said.

Entrance into the homes has only been permitted through one door since the beginning of January and that continues to be the case. Additional education has been provided to staff on proper use of PPEs and outbreak protocols.

In late March, Grey County also began redeploying staff from other departments to the long term care department.

“Immediately, the economic development department provided 15 staff members, they were trained and began working in all three homes,” said Cornell. “I can’t say how grateful I am for those first 15 people to put their hands up and the support from the HR department to get this done. It has been wonderful and they really led the way on this.”

The Grey County long term care department has also reached out to the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario in order to acquire nursing students.

“We are also working with EMS on ordering supplies and we are receiving temporary licenses for our five unfunded beds,” said Cornell. “Our homes have since moved residents into these additional beds. And that provides some support and relief for the hospitals as they begin to prepare for a surge in their patients.”

Staff are wearing masks at all times and protocol has been established to check each staff member's temperature before and after their shifts.

Cornell briefly teared up during the virtual meeting when talking about her staff.

“They have been unbelievable and have stepped up tremendously during this time,” she said, confirming that the workload in the care homes has escalated dramatically since the beginning of the year.

“There is definitely more work. Everything that normally goes on in these homes is still continuing and all of the additional protocols brought on by COVID are creating a lot more work,” she said. “We have increased the staffing hours. Staffing is something that we are monitoring regularly and we are moving these additional staff members around to try and ease stress.”

Nearly every member of the committee thanked Cornell and her staff during the call.

“We are supremely proud of the work you are doing,” said Warden Paul McQueen. “This is just great work and I know you were ahead of this and that just speaks volumes of you and your team.”

McQueen added that everyone should encourage county residents to, “tie a white ribbon around your trees to show your support for these frontline workers.”

In an effort to ensure ongoing communication with residents and their family members, the long term care department will be hosting a town-hall-style family conference call tonight at 7 p.m. A recording of the call will later be hosted on the Grey County YouTube page.