This is Beverley's story
In a Kelowna emergency dept my 90 y/o mom, had been subject to a serious overdose of someone else's medication, 350 mg Seroquel.
I then filed FOI requests as there is no Review Board for private facilities as there are for public ones.
The words the care aides charted to describe mom were “unresponsive, weak, very confused, laboured breathing, extreme shortness of breath (more than usual), unable to get up or stand, refusing meals, showers, dressing” even being asked at least 3 times during this 6 week period if she needed an ambulance.
They also charted numerous times that the A/L manager was informed. For 6 weeks I was told mom's fine and mom's being asked if she needs an ambulance. The FOI also shows the A/L manager weighed mom (my request) discovered she was only 71 lbs yet withheld this information from me, mom's Dr and community care nurse for days. 3 days to be exact. I was informed of mom's weight on the third day after she was weighed only after I phoned, leaving two messages.
I informed mom's Dr and community care nurse. The first time I saw mom her pants fell off her hips....the first time her community care nurse saw mom she immediately initiated palliative orders. Within an hour of informing me that my 97 y/o mom was only 71 lbs the facility's Regional Director sent an email to staff congratulating them on 'keeping residents weights up'. I was privy to the email as I've been a care aide with this same company for the past 15 years.
July 1, 2020 I took an LOA, permanently removed mom from the facility and cared for her at home 24/7 until she passed away a week before Christmas. I resigned this past March despite being 10 years from retirement. I am still in the process of trying to get the Assisted Living Registry to review my complaint in light of the FOI discoveries to no avail so far. The MOH has told me they cannot help. The FOI shows mom suffered quite a bit during this period. She went from a politically-minded 97y/o before lockdown to a senior who needed anti-psychotics just to relax and sleep at night. I can read from the progress notes when her mental break occurred. Mother's Day weekend, 2020, she started on the call bell, calling for help constantly and she actually never stopped calling for help until Dec.18, the day she died.
Both investigation reports contained erroneous/missing information....proven erroneous by easily accessible medical records. This is a very brief synopsis of both events and I have all records/correspondence to corroborate my claims. This is our LTC facility.
The investigation report I received from the Health Authority gave little information and stated mom suffered "a little bit of low blood pressure" but was alert and by 1 pm the following day she was stable, showing no lasting effects. In actuality my son and I were there at 1pm...she was unconscious with an NPO sign at her bedside. I asked for the PCQ Review Board to re-examine the complaint response from the Health Authority. The Review Board determined: there were a number of discrepancies between the RN's statement and mom's medical records & that there was a conflict of interest with the ED manager reviewing the occurrence while overseeing the ED at the time of the event & the overdose was NOT discovered immediately as claimed & mom's "little bit of low blood pressure" was actually 61/53. The PCQ Review Board report states: " Although information regarding your mother's event was easily accessible through medical records the response letter, although lengthy, lacked detail about the event and appeared unnecessarily defensive and diminished the seriousness of the incident".
April 2020 to the present I was an essential visitor for my elderly mother (Assisted Living) at the time of lock down but this was rescinded in the first week of April 2020. I spoke with the A/L manager, reminded her that mom was only 79 lbs when she first came to Assisted Living but had been 'tipping' 100 lbs the last few years. If she does show more signs of decline I asked to be immediately informed and we, as a family, would take care of her. She assured me she would as she was also aware of mom's history of depression and not eating. Despite phoning the manager 1-2/week, always being reassured mom was 'fine' I found out after 6 weeks in isolation that mom was now only 71 lbs.
June 22, 2020 I initiated a complaint with the Assisted Living Registry but was not contacted by the investigator. Nov 2020 I received an email report from the registry that my complaint was unsubstantiated. Yet the email contained erroneous information, mistruths and was missing pertinent information. When I inquired with the registry I was told the care aides hadn't charted much, that the facility was educated on record keeping but that there wasn't much proof of neglect in the way of paperwork.
I then filed FOI requests as there is no Review Board for private facilities as there are for public ones. Through FOI I have discovered that the progress notes (charting) that I was told were non existent DO actually exist. Mom's care aides were blamed for not informing the manager or charting yet the progress notes show they did both.