Carol Parnell says they have to find 7.5 hours a day to reduce from the home’s care-providing budget, based on case mix index (CMI) numbers handed down by the Province just before Christmas.

OMNI's level-of-care needs changed substantially from a year ago, according to this annual snapshot taken in OMNI homes over the course of last fall. As a result, many homes saw a drop in their CMI.

CMI numbers reflect care needs and determine the homes level of funding.

“We haven’t eliminated any positions. We’re reducing across the board, based on seniority,” says Carol.

Some good news for the 61-bed home is that occupancy is not an issue. “We’re usually at 100 per cent capacity,” says Carol.

“People from the area regularly request to come here because they like the rural setting,” she adds.

Carol says the home is also focusing on three-year accreditation plans right now. “We’ll get our CMI numbers back up through lots of in-servicing on keeping strong care plans,” says Carol. The idea is to ensure up-to-date charting in the care plan to keep CMI numbers as accurate as possible.

“Health care aides and personal support workers are getting more interested in care levels too,” notes Carol.

As for challenges on the horizon, Carol says Tena disposable incontinence program begins at the end of this month. Whether or not Pleasant Meadow will implementn the multidose system is up in the air, because they do not deal with Medical Pharmacy like most other OMNI homes.

As for other challenges, Carol says “time” is always the biggest problem to get things done.