Taking care

Specifi cally, the Minister asked us to investigate the circumstances surrounding the care of Margaret Warholm, whose children had questioned the adequacy of the care she received while a resident of Santa Maria. [...] The original agreement between the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region and Santa Maria, an affi liation agreement signed in 1994, acknowledged that Santa Maria is responsible for the quality of the care it delivers and that the Region is responsible to satisfy itself with the quality of the services. [...] The Guidelines specifi cally state that “While the Ministry of Health provides global funding to the regional health authorities, the day-to-day delivery of programs and services, including facility based care…is the responsibility of the regional health authorities.” The Guidelines include over 100 individual standards dealing with topics such as standards of care, resident rights and responsibil [...] Both the Director of Care and the Nurse Manager told us care aides have the discretion to choose to give a tub bath even when the resi- dent’s care plan says otherwise. [...] The fi rst care aide said she was reaching to grab the required safety belt at the time, but managed to catch Margaret “around the middle” and used her arm to somewhat slow her fall to the fl oor.