Accreditation helps raise standards of care, says administrator
Home sees process as learning experience
Wednesday March 19, 2008 -- Deron Hamel
The March 6 accreditation assessment at Rosebridge Manor will help raise the bar when it comes to providing residents at the Jasper long-term care home with the best possible quality of care, says Dorothy Broeders-Morin, the home’s administrator.

“Accreditation is all about seeking excellence in providing quality care and services to the residents and the residents,” she says.

“Families now have greater expectations than ever when it comes to our health care and what they feel we should deliver. Accreditation is one process that helps us meet and exceed their expectations.”

From March 3-7, surveyors from the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation (CCHSA) visited 16 of OMNI’s 17 long-term care homes as part of the company’s corporate accreditation process.

The purpose of accreditation is to ensure that organizations continuously evaluate, improve and report their success and growth.

While each of OMNI’s homes has been independently accredited in the past, this is the first time the company has sought corporate accreditation

Broeders-Morin says one of the things she and other staff members at the home walked away from the assessment with was an understanding of the need to engage families more in collaborative education.

This means including families in initiatives such as hand-washing education.

“We have the dry hand-wash at all the doors but there’s a definite technique when it comes to using (the dispensers),” says Broeders-Morin. “So we’re going to look at that and put some diagrams out there . . . it all helps us better our care.”

Broeders-Morin says she was pleased with the method of assessment the surveyors used. In past accreditation assessments she has been a part of, Broeders-Morin says the auditing was more focused on policy and procedures, rather than looking for evidence that the home “walked the talk.”

Because this accreditation assessment was corporate, as opposed to home-by-home, the surveyors looked at different factors in each home.

Rosebridge’s assessment focused on resident care, medication management, resident-staff safety, ethics and the physical environment.

“Our focus is on evidence-based resident care, so I think we did really well,” says Broeders-Morin.

Nancy Unsworth, the home’s director of care, says she found the process to be “very enlightening.”

“It has given me a sense of rejuvenation and I have increased confidence that we achieving the outcomes we want to achieve,” she says. “OMNI has done such a great job of developing all the things that we need, they’ve put all the resources into place, and this affirms that we’re doing what we need to.”

What did your home learn from accreditation? To share your stories, please contact deron(at)axiomnews.ca.

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