Province orders Ontario company to take over Etobicoke long-term care home with COVID-19 outbreak

TORONTO -- For the first time, the province has tapped a private company to take over management of a long-term care home grappling with a COVID-19 outbreak.

The Ministry of Long-Term Care said Monday evening that UniversalCare Canada Inc. will temporarily take over management of Westside, an Etobicoke long-term care home where 20 residents have died. The home is currently run by Revera Long Term Care Inc.

"Our top priority is to protect our long-term care home residents," Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton said in a statement. "We are grateful to the staff at UniversalCare Canada Inc. for working with Revera Long Term Care Inc. and Westside to stabilize the home and stop the COVID-19 outbreak."

Toronto Public Health declared an outbreak at the home, located on Albion Road just west of Islington Avenue, more than a month ago on Nov. 12. Revera reported that a total of 141 residents and 112 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak started. 

Currently, there are 55 residents and 94 staff members with active cases of COVID-19, with 25 resident deaths linked to the virus. 

“We are working very closely with public health officials and are following pandemic outbreak protocols and infection control practices. All residents are monitored twice daily for symptoms,” Dr. Rhonda Collins, chief medical officer for Revera, said in a statement.

“The UniversalCare Canada Inc. will provide temporary management support for the home, will help ensure that residents and staff are kept safe. The arrangements are being finalized and we will have more information for staff and families in the coming days.”

The province has so far issued seven mandatory management orders for long-term care homes during the pandemic, and has approved 16 voluntary management contracts between Ontario hospitals and long-term care homes.

However this is the first time during the pandemic that the province has required a home to retain an outside management company.

“We will continue to match resources with needs as we support homes, staff and our most vulnerable through the second wave of the virus,” a ministry spokesperson said in an email to CP24.com.

The ministry did not say why a private company was being brought in rather than a hospital in this instance. However the statement did point out that the Long-Term Care Homes Act allows the province to appoint a hospital or management company to handle an outbreak at a home.

UniversalCare Canada Inc., based just north of Vaughan in Nobleton, Ont., currently manages 11 other long-term care homes in the province. Management at those homes is not related to COVID-19 spread, the province said.

The mandatory management order will be in effect for 90 days and could be extended further if the ministry deems it necessary.

In its last statement on the outbreak at Westside on Dec. 10, Revera said that infected residents are isolating in their rooms and infected staff members are isolating at home.

“We are working very closely with Public Health officials and are following pandemic outbreak protocols and infection control practices,” the home said. “All residents are monitored twice daily for symptoms.”

The home also said staff are being screened before their shifts and enhanced cleanings are being carried out.  

Union representing frontline workers concerned over decision

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) represents 203 staff members at Westside, including personal support workers. The union made a request to the province on Dec. 10 for a public hospital or public entity to take over management of Westside during the outbreak. 

“The news that this private company has come in to manage it, we have a lot of questions and concerns about it,” said Sharleen Stewart, president at SEIU Healthcare.

Among Stewart’s concerns are the quality of care and support residents and staff will receive.

“As this pandemic has showed us, for-profit companies, their priorities is that of the shareholders and making profit. So, the results we have seen have proven that for profit have had the worse outcome,” said Stewart. 

Stewart adds the union will wait and see how UniversalCare Canada handles the outbreak before requesting the province reconsiders the order. 

UniversalCare Canada President and CEO Joseph Gulizia declined to comment on the province’s order and deferred questions to the Ministry of Long Term Care. 

With files from CTV News Toronto's Mike Walker