Family members of seniors living at Tendercare Living Centre, a privately owned long-term-care home in Scarborough, are raising the alarm over the “dehumanizing” treatment residents are receiving while the facility undergoes renovations.
Relatives told the Star that seniors are being awoken around 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning and moved to a “cramped” room beside the ground-floor lobby to accommodate the installation of a new sprinkler system, an infrastructure improvement required at all long-term-care homes by the Ontario government’s new design standards.
They say the residents, most of whom use wheelchairs, are being kept in this room, where they receive their meals and are tended to by personal support workers (PSWs).
They describe the space as “very disorganized” and “a mess” with beds lined up against the walls and a table in the middle of the room where residents eat. One family member said they witnessed an elderly lady in a wheelchair “crying” and that “nobody cared for her” when she was pushed aside to make room for another resident.
The Star visited Tendercare last week and witnessed more than a dozen residents in the room crowded around a table eating their meals or sitting in wheelchairs and being fed by standing PSWs. Along one wall there were several beds, on which family members say they have seen sick residents lying during the day.
Tendercare says it’s trying to minimize disruptions
“It’s just so, so sad,” said one family member who visited their relative at the home. “The seniors are not being treated like people anymore. They are dehumanized.”
(The Star agreed to grant anonymity to the family members it heard from to protect residents’ privacy.)
Tendercare told the Star that it recognizes the sprinkler installation is disruptive to the lives of residents and their families and is “doing everything we can” to minimize the disruption and complete the renovations as quickly as possible. Completion is expected at the end of November, the home added.
Unlike several other long-term-care homes in the GTA, Tendercare is staying open while it performs its infrastructure upgrades. Six nursing homes in the city have shut down or have announced that they are closing in the last three years, many because they cannot afford costly retrofits to bring old buildings up to Ontario’s new design standards. All long-term-care homes in the province must have sprinkler systems installed by Jan. 1, 2025.
Outside the city, two long-term-care homes have announced they will close because they are unable to meet the sprinkler deadline.
Home subject to four ministry inspections
Tendercare’s executive director, Roxanne Adams, said “delivery of quality care continues to be our first priority throughout the renovations,” noting that the home has put in additional supports including: increasing the number of PSWs and housekeeping staff during the week, using privacy screens and “other comfort measures” during resident care due to space limitations, maintaining consistent routines and schedules for residents, and continuing to offer activities such as music therapy, Mahjong, exercise programs and physiotherapy to keep residents engaged.
She said the home is also practicing fire safety and preparedness which includes emergency evacuation drills on a monthly basis.
“We work closely with the ministry and are following their directions to ensure resident safety, including all IPAC guidelines. These include strengthened measures on all floors, ensuring dedicated isolation rooms remain available for residents in the event infection symptoms are identified, and enhanced cleaning and sanitization of high touch areas like handrails and washrooms,” Adams said.
Tendercare has been the subject of controversy in the past. In December 2020, a COVID-19 outbreak at the McNicoll Ave. facility resulted in 81 resident deaths, the highest number seen at any long-term-care home in the province up until that point.
More recently, in the last year the home was the subject of four Ministry of Long-Term Care inspections, which found a total of 11 instances of non-compliance with the Fixing Long-Term Care Act or its regulations and resulted in inspectors issuing two compliance orders.
During one inspection, ministry inspectors found glue boards and bait traps around the home with “disintegrated mice, dead cockroaches and debris.”
The compliance orders — more serious tools than written notices of non-compliance — were related to the unexpected death of a resident suffering from hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar.
Tendercare said it has complied with all prior ministry findings on pest issues and has implemented daily audits and weekly pest control monitoring. It says it has also instituted mandatory re-education and training for staff on blood sugar monitoring and has a requirement for all new staff to complete and pass a policy compliance test before their first shift.
“The inspection process is valuable to our ongoing efforts to enhance care quality and make improvements at our home,” said Adams. “We carefully address all directions from ministry inspectors and submit comprehensive response plans whenever findings are received.”
When it comes to the sprinkler installation at Tendercare happening now, relatives of one resident said family members were only told by the home that their loved ones would be moved out of their rooms during the day once renovations started.
They say they also worry about infection prevention and control in the room.
“They’re so crammed together, if there’s a virus, someone got something, you know, it will spread like wildfire immediately,” said one concerned relative.
Adams says the home continues to stay in contact with its community and encourages residents and families to reach out with any questions or concerns so it can help to resolve any issues.
