Enhancements coming to long-term care

Grey County is working with Sienna Senior Living to ensure the County remains well prepared to provide long-term care services to an aging population with complex health needs. The new agreement gives Grey County access to support, expertise and resources that will improve operations and allow the County to provide long-term care more effectively and efficiently. Grey County will maintain responsibility and decision making authority for all three homes.

“Residents of Grey County’s long-term care homes expect and deserve the best care we can afford to provide. As the needs of our long-term care residents become more complex, so do the systems that support long-term care,” said Grey County Warden Stewart Halliday.

One of Sienna’s first activities will be developing an in-depth action plan to help Grey County achieve accreditation from CARF Canada. Accreditation is a symbol of excellence and makes Grey County eligible for additional funding from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. The action plan will focus on compliance and quality improvements.

“We learned a lot about ourselves from our recent service review,” says Lynne Johnson, Director of Long-Term Care with Grey County. “We`re doing well based on the resources we have and Sienna has the expertise we need to take our long-term care services to the next level.”

Sienna Senior Living is a leading seniors’ living provider. The company has more than 45 years of experience owning, operating and managing long-term care homes in Canada. They currently serve more than 10,000 seniors in 85 locations with a full range of seniors’ living options. The company was named one of Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures in 2017.

Sienna’s Ontario long-term care communities are fully accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), and its team has extensive expertise operating long-term care homes in accordance with best practices. The company outperforms provincial and national averages on publicly reported quality indicators, and exceeds the provincial average on Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care inspections.

Sienna has worked with and supported Grey County long-term care homes in a variety of ways for several years and is pleased to assist the Grey County team in providing residents with high quality long-term care services.

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Backgrounder

In June 2017, Grey County Council directed staff to prepare an RFP to recruit a management company to perform an operational review of the County’s long-term care services, assist with redevelopment planning and provide other management support.   On February 1, 2018, Grey County entered into a five-year agreement with Sienna Senior Living.  An operational review was completed of all three homes. Findings were   presented to the Long-Term Care Committee of Management on June 12, 2018. This review identified areas of improvement and provided recommendations for improving services and preparing to meet changing provincial regulations.

For more information contact Rob Hatten, Communications Manager, at rob.hatten [at] grey.ca (rob[dot]hatten[at]grey[dot]ca) or 519-372-0219 ext.1235 or 519-373-1592.