Baywoods Place and Hamilton Continuing Care ordered to improve COVID-19 outbreak response

Public health has issued an order to two long-term care homes in Hamilton, directing them to improve their response to ongoing outbreaks.

Revera's Baywoods Place received an order on Monday after public health noted "inadequate control measures", including:

• Inadequate active screening of residents, staff or essential visitors to the facility.
• Inadequate staff training on the use and reprocessing of personal protective equipment, which would prevent staff from safely providing appropriate care to ill resident(s).
• Inadequate hand hygiene education and lack of auditing of hand hygiene practices.
• Inadequate compliance with physical distancing of two meters in staff areas.
• Inadequate plan for enhanced environmental cleaning of the facility.

The long-term care home has 38 COVID-19 cases as of Thursday. Of those, 22 are residents and 16 are staff members.

The observations by public health came after on-site audits on Nov. 10 and Nov. 18.

"Breaches in infection prevention and control measures were identified in the facility, impacting on the ability to respond to the declared outbreak of COVID-19 in the facility," the order says.

Revera, the company that runs the care home, said in a statement to CBC News that it is "not in agreement with the order."

"We will be working with Hamilton Public Health and the Ministry of Long-Term Care to resolve the issue," reads a statement from Larry Roberts, the company spokesperson.

"We are very proud of the work our team at Baywoods Place is doing to care for our residents and to protect our residents and staff from COVID-19."

This comes as Hamilton Continuing Care (HCC) must allow staff from St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton to enter the facility in order to monitor and investigate the outbreak there.

Forty-five people connected to the home (28 residents, 16 staff members and one other case) had tested positive as of Friday.

Officials are in daily contact with HCC, which is complying with the order, according to public health spokesperson Jacqueline Durlov.

"There was ongoing evidence or transmission with ongoing concerns, despite education," she wrote in an email explaining the reason for the order.

Kelly Younger, general manager of Hamilton Continuing Care, said the home welcomes the expertise offered by St. Joe's following the order.

"We have quickly worked with St. Joe's on improvements, including reviewing and streamlining IPAC practices, extensive education of our staff, and  improved processes to prevent further spread of COVID-19," she wrote in an email statement.