Flaws that led to deadly COVID-19 outbreak at Maples care home being fixed, province says

The Manitoba government says it has made big strides to ensure deadly viral outbreaks like the COVID-19 wave that left dozens dead at the Maples Long Term Care Home never happen again.

On Friday, the province released a progress report on the recommendations that came out of an external review into what happened at the privately run Winnipeg facility.

An outbreak was declared Oct. 20 and didn't end until Jan. 12. In that time, 74 staff and 157 residents tested positive for COVID-19 and 56 people died.

An independent advisor was brought in to conduct the review long before the outbreak was even over. It was ordered following a particularly difficult night, on Nov. 6, when paramedics were called to the facility to care for a dozen rapidly deteriorating residents.

The review's main areas of focus included determining staffing levels, the level of care provided and the infection prevention and control policies and procedures in place at the site.

The final report made 17 recommendations and the province created a plan to implement them.

The review found that while pandemic systems had been prepared and were in place, there were multiple plans, which led to confusion and redundancies in communications and workflow, and a lack of expertise in infection prevention and control.

The facility was also unprepared for the significant reduction in available staff once they had been exposed to COVID-19 and were required to self-isolate, and the urgency of requests for more staffing supports was not fully understood until the situation became critical.

More staff was finally brought in, but many were not skilled in providing long-term care services and lacked training in infection prevention and control and specialized housekeeping skills, the review found.

It also found facility communications with families was inconsistent, which eroded trust, and clinical care guidance for ill patients was not readily available.

The report also made a number of recommendations for change beyond the Maples facility. Those were aimed at all personal care home sites in Manitoba as well as the health incident command and Manitoba Health and Seniors Care.

Work has already begun to implement those, Friday's news release said.

Implementing the recommendations involved creating 13 working groups, with representatives from the regional health authorities, Shared Health, private and not-for-profit long-term care facilities, personal care home operators and personal care home associations.

Each working group was given short-, medium- or long-term timelines.

In the last three months, all recommendations specific to the Maples care home have been completed, and all the short-term recommendations for the province overall have been completed, Health and Seniors Care Minister Heather Stefanson said in the news release.

"We have made significant progress towards ensuring an outbreak like this doesn't happen again," she said in the release.

The remaining changes will be made in the weeks and months ahead, the news release says.