Florentine president says staffing issues among reasons for giving up Complex Care License

MERRITT — The president of the Florentine in Merritt says choosing to give up the facility’s Complex Care License was not an easy decision.

“It’s one of the more difficult decisions I’ve made. It certainly wasn’t what we wanted to do in 2004 when we started the complex, I actually thought I’d be a resident in the facility at the end of the process, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to materialize.”

Frank Rizzardo says there have been ongoing staffing challenges at the long term care facility. The issues escalated when Greyhound shuttered its bus service in B.C.

“A lot of our replacement staff for the LPN and the RCAs came from the Fraser Valley,” he said. “They were typically trainees, recent graduates of the programs. When the bus system was terminated their opportunity or their ability to meet scheduled shifts became much more difficult and so our staffing resource was severely restricted.”

Recruitment efforts have been less than fruitful.

“Merritt’s on the small side,” Rizzardo said, “we can’t ask the rates that some of the other centres are asking for the monthly rate and that limits our ability to attract the higher end compensated salaries.”

BC Care Providers Association CEO Terry Lake says staffing challenges are a crisis in seniors care across B.C.

“The Florentine has seen issues with staffing, but we’ve seen others,” Lake said. “Retirement Concepts in Summerland, for instance has had challenges with staffing and that led to the health authority taking over management of that nursing home. I do think that we’re going to see more of that if we can’t recruit people into the sector.”

In late March, Interior Health appointed an administrator to the Florentine to oversee operations.

“Interior Health’s Board of Directors appointed an administrator at the Florentine in Merritt to oversee the operations of the 20 long-term care beds within the facility and to bring the LTC service into compliance with provincial legislation (the Community Care and Assisted Living Act),” reads a statement from Interior Health.

“The decision to appoint an administrator came following inspections at the site over a period of several months.”

Interior Health says the current administrator and transition team are working to identify relocation options for the residents.

Sue Wright’s mother, Caroline, will be among the residents that may need to find a new place to live.

Wright’s father was also a resident, receiving complex care before passing away a few months ago. The Florentine is one of few long term care facilities in B.C. that allows couples to live together in a complex care setting.

“They allowed them to be together and my dad could still be in the same room and floor as my mom,” Wright said. “Which most places don’t allow. And now they’re telling me that because my mom needs so much assisted care even though she’s not complex, that she will have one year to leave (the Florentine) as well.”

Wright is planning to meet with Florentine staff in the coming days to discuss options for keeping her mother in the facility.

“Now we’re just scrambling trying to do what’s best for my mum,” Wright said. “She thrives on familiarity and is having a hard time with the loss of her husband. I’ve explained to her that she might have to move and she doesn’t want to move after she’s built these relationships with the doctor and the nurses and the care aides and all the workers there. So it’s a struggle for her as well.”

Lake says Interior Health will need to work closely with families to find spaces for residents as close as possible. Kamloops seems like the logical alternative for many.

“Interior Health only has so many publicly held positions and these are privately held positions, so whether or not there will be space here in Kamloops in publicly-funded beds remains to be seen but there may be opportunities in privately-funded beds,” Lake said. “I know the public has difficulty understanding the difference between publicly-funded and privately-funded. The fact is, we don’t invest enough in seniors care to make more publicly-funded beds available.”

The assisted living beds at the Florentine are currently unaffected, but Rizzardo says they will be stepping back from assisted living to some degree and promoting more of an independent living model.