Long term care homes are the latest focus of attention for the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
Officials with the SHA met the media Tuesday, providing an update on their strategy in response to COVID-19.
In remarks to the media, CEO Scott Livingstone said they are “watching and learning across the globe about how deadly the impact is of COVID-19 on vulnerable patients in long-term care.”
He said they were taking the directives from last Friday’s updated public health order from Dr. Saqib Shahab.
According to Livingstone, on April 3 they put in place fitness-to-work screening for those working at all long-term care facilities and anyone entering long term care facilities. He said this measure is already helping to protect patients, residents and workers.
Prior to last Friday, SHA had been working on a strategy to limit staff from working in multiple facilities. As of April 28, long-term care and personal care homes must ensure each staff member works in only one facility. This strategy is known as “cohorting” and Livingstone says it has been used in response to other outbreaks such as influenza.
But this has never been done on a provincial basis. “This will be our first,” Livingstone said.
The SHA said in a news releases it is now “aggressively pursuing a long-term care staff cohorting strategy in order to meet the April 28, 2020 deadline. As an immediate measure, SHA will implement staff cohorting for high-risk areas (for example, testing/ assessment sites and facilities with COVID-19-positive patients) as soon as possible. This will eliminate potential instances where staff are working in areas treating COVID-19-positive patients while also working in a long-term care facility.”
SHA also confirmed that a new temporary Letter of Understanding was signed by the SHA, Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations and all five health care unions including SUN, HSAS, CUPE, SEIU-West and SGE, to create a temporary Labour Pool and cohorting of staff to address health care needs related to COVID-19.
Last week, universal screening and continuous masking was brought in to all facilities. An Occupational Health and Safety hotline has also been set up for staff.
They also continue to expand their testing sites and Livingstone confirmed they are in position to test over 1,500 per day. Testing numbers, however, have been lower the last few days.
“We are just not seeing people show up with symptoms of COVID-19,” said Livingstone. “That doesn’t mean we don’t have the ability to test more, we’re just not seeing those patients.”
