Thunder Bay's Hogarth Riverview Manor day to day operations managed by third party

The largest nursing home in Thunder Bay, Ont.,  has been turned over to a third party to manage its day to day operations.

Hogarth Riverview Manor, owned by and licensed to St. Joseph's Care Group, is now running under the guidance of Extendicare Assist.

The move happened in mid-November through a mandatory management order issued by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

The reasoning for the operations change was "to be able to get into compliance, make sure that all the orders that the ministry has identified that we need to comply with... and to make sure that we have a sustainable plan to stay in compliance," said Tracy Buckler, the president and CEO of St. Joseph's Care Group.

Buckler said the staff at Hogarth Riverview Manor continue to be employees of St. Joe's, but are being managed by Extendicare Assist.

"They're running day to day with our team. All our staff are there, and they're learning a lot from our Extendicare Partners. because Extendicare has somewhere around 50,000 beds across this country," she said.

"Their expertise is clearly in long-term care operations, so our team is working hand-in-hand, side-by-side, with the company to learn everything that they can, and take their expertise in long term care and translate that into the best operating home at Hogarth Riverview Manor that we can possibly have," said Buckler

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Buckler said she is confident St. Joseph's Care Group will, at some point, resume day to day operations of Hogarth Riverview Manor, but "that's up to the ministry to decide."

Hogarth Riverview Manor has had 26 inspections and complaints looked at by the ministry of health in the past two years.

The facility was originally built as a 96-bed operation, but was quadrupled in size to 544 beds in 2015, making it one of the largest long-term care homes in Ontario.

Of the 544 beds, 64 are still vacant, which equates to two units. Buckler said staffing shortages mean the home cannot be fully occupied until more staff are hired.

Buckler would not speculate on when that shortage would be alleviated, but said those units that are already open are operating short- staffed.

"We're short already. We need to get up to the right number of staff for the 480 existing."