Streamway Villa lists triumphs of 2004
Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - Michelle Strutzenberger
Streamway Villa’s greatest success this past year has been the continued development of its “culture of family,” according to Leeanne Hadley, the long-term care home’s administrator.

“I think the area where we have been most successful is in the meaningful, personal relationships that exist throughout the home here,” Leeanne tells the OMNIway in a telephone interview. “Residents know the staff very well, families know the staff very well, and vice versa.”

“We are truly a family here,” she adds.

Streamway also shone this past year in the area of wound care management, according to Leeanne. Although healthy skin was also one of OMNI’s foci for this past year, Leeanne says they were “ahead of the game” at Streamway.

“We had implemented much of the wound care management protocol long before OMNI introduced it,” she says.

A prevalence study at Streamway in the summer showed there were zero new skin breakdowns in residents. KCI, a global corporation specializing in wound care and other medical support, carried out the study. In an earlier interview with the OMNIway, Leeanne noted that the KCI representative said it was the first time she had seen zero new skin breakdowns among the residents in the 20 long-term care homes that she surveyed.

The fact that all but one registered staff-member had completed an advanced wound care course contributed to the home’s wound care management success.

Leeanne also cites Streamway’s small group programming and supportive measures as 2004 successes. “We are using supportive measures more and more,” she says.

Staff-members have also found that shrinking the size of its groups for life enrichment activities better suits the specific needs and capabilities of the individual residents. “We have so many varying disease processes and cognitive processes here that the smaller groups are better for meeting specific needs,” says the administrator.

Looking ahead to the new year, Leeanne says that at Streamway they will be putting a lot of energy into implementing the new provincial standards into their policies and procedures, as well educating staff about them. Fulfilling the new requirement for the 24-hour RN coverage will be one of their biggest challenges, says Leeanne.