The new administrator of the H.J. McFarland Memorial Home in Picton intends to speed up the accreditation process for the long term care home.
Kim Mauro told Prince Edward County council’s Committee of the Whole that she will switch to another accreditation organization which offers a thorough, but simpler process, and hopes to have the facility inspected and graded by the middle of next year.
Accreditation for the H.J. McFarland Home was to have been done by this November, however, the home’s new management didn’t believe administration and staff were ready to go through the process after changes were being made after several issues came to light under previous management.
Under the current accreditation agency, the process wouldn’t have been done until November of 2018.
Meanwhile, Councillor Steven Graham pointed to the dramatic drop in critical incidents at the home between April and June. In that period, there was just one critical incident, where residents or staff are involved in an incident involving injury or illness. In the previous quarter, there were 10 such incidents.
Councillor Graham suggested that perhaps new approaches by management had played a role in the improvement.
H.J. McFarland Administrator Mauro said that staff were receiving regular and improved training for everyone involved, however she tempered her remarks by adding that critical incidents were unpredictable and statistics varied up and down over time.