Page 00 - The Local Paper - Wednesday, July 11, 2018
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Special Report
Facts about Kellock’s merger partner ■ Anglican Bishop John Parkes wants to merge Alexandra’s Kellock Lodge aged residential care centre with his organisation’s St John’s Village at Wangaratta. Mergers and acquisitions, and business takeovers, are almost always accompanied by ‘due diligence’ studies. “Due diligence” is defined as “a comprehensive appraisal of a business undertaken by a prospective buyer, especially to establish its assets and liabilities and evaluate its commercial potential”. In July last year year a proposed merger between St John’s Village with Anglican Aged Care Service’s Benetas failed after both parties “mutually agreed” not to proceed after agreement could not be reached on “commercial terms”, the Wangaratta Chronicle reported. In December 2016 Bishop John Parkes had told residents the merger was necessary “to ensure the longterm viability of our services”, the Wangaratta newspaper reported. The Australian Aged Care Quality Agency conducts regular appraisals of centres around the nation. In an accreditation review conducted late last year, AACQA found that St John’s Retirement Village Nursing Home failed to meet 13 of the 44 expected outcomes of the Accreditation Standards. St John’s is operated by the “approved provider”, Trustees of the Anglican Diocese of Wangaratta. ACQA says a number of areas of performance at St John’s were “not met”: Management systems, staffing and organisational development ■ Continuous improvement, ■ Regulatory compliance, ■ Comments and complaints, ■ Human resource management, Health and personal care ■ Continuous improvement, ■ Regulatory compliance, ■ Clinical care, Care recipient lifestyle ■ Regulatory compliance, Physical environment and safe systems ■ Continuous improvement, Health and personal care ■ Regulatory compliance, ■ Education and staff development, ■ Infection control, ■ Catering, cleaning and laundry services. The damning 30-page report says that managers under the supervision of Trustees of the Anglican Diocese
PHOTO BY JAY TOWN
Failure Failure after after failure failure at at St St John’s John’s
● Bishop John Parkes at St John’s Village Wangaratta. Photo courtesy: Herald Sun. of Wangaratta (headed by Bishop “Management did not ensure staff consistently prepared or equipped Parkes) were not clear they had re- reported allegations of elder abuse with the appropriate knowledge and sponsibility for quality systems. skills in relation to use of the home's in a timely manner. The AACQA report said staff gen“Management did not ensure the electronic risk management system. erally did not know how to use a new respiratory outbreak case list was “Management and staff knowlelectronic risk management pro- complete and reflected all deaths and edge and skills were inconsistent in gram. relation to reporting or actioning inhospitalisations. “Management did not identify the “Management did not ensure all cidents and infections and commuissues with documenting improve- deaths and hospitalisations related to nicating about the health status of ment suggestions and were not ac- the influenza and respiratory out- care recipients. tively engaged with the continuous break of August 2017 and Septem“While the home has an onsite improvement system.” ber 2017 were consistently notified registered training organisation that AACQA was scathing about the to the Department of Health and provides staff education, the program St John’s leadership: Human Services in a timely manner does not always identify and respond to staff training needs. “The organisation’s manage- within 24 hours. “Staff said management did not ment does not have an effective sys“Management did not have system to identify and promote compli- tems to ensure management and provide timely information and eduance with all relevant legislation, staff followed all relevant guidelines cation to support the containment and regulatory requirements, professional in identifying, actioning and moni- management of the respiratory outstandards and guidelines. toring the influenza and respiratory break. “During the review audit, stake“Regulatory compliance across outbreak in a timely manner from the the Accreditation Standards was not onset of symptoms,” the Agency said holders raised concerns about staffing levels, skin care, pain manageeffectively monitored. of St John’s. “Management and staff did not “Management and staff cannot ment, continence and clinical care ensure the home was actively pur- demonstrate they had the appropri- during the influenza and respiratory suing continuous improvement ate knowledge and skills to identify, outbreak in August 2017 and Sepacross the Accreditation Standards. contain and manage the influenza tember 2017. “In addition, they raised concerns “Management were not aware and respiratory outbreak of August about infection control, cleaning and staff were working outside their 2017 and September 2017. scope of practice in relation to veri“These skill and knowledge defi- the level of communication during fication of death, management of cits impacted negatively on care re- that time. “A representative of a deceased syringe drivers and controlled medi- cipients. cation. “Management and staff were not care recipient who contracted respiratory illness said they did not receive a call to inform them of the outbreak. “They received a letter about the outbreak after their relative had died. “The organisation did not maintain a sufficient number of appropriately skilled and qualified staff during the influenza and respiratory outbreak of August 2017 and September 2017. “A total of 58 staff across the organisation were affected during the outbreak and were absent from work at various periods. “There was no staffing contingency plan for the outbreak to ensure types and numbers of staff were maintained “Replacement staff were not always able to be sourced from permanent staff, the staff pool or a nursing agency. No additional staff worked during the outbreak,” the Agency found. ● Continued on next page ● Peter Rice was one of the Alexandra residents featured on WIN News last week.
10 deaths at St John’s ■ “A fatal flu outbreak at a Wangaratta nursing home, where 10 residents died of influenza and two others from respiratory illness, was worsened by serious management failures, a scathing government audit has found,” was how The Age late last year reported on St John’s Village at Wangaratta. Three of the 10 residents who died were not referred to a doctor when they first started showing symptoms, and others had to wait five days for swabs to be taken, the report by the Aged Care Quality Agency found, The Age said. "Management were not aware of their responsibilities in relation to the reporting of the hospitalisation of care recipients with influenza or respiratory illness within 24 hours and did not comply with these requirements," the agency said. "On occasions there was no registered nurse on duty and the nurse manager on call was not always available to come in when requested after hours." "Except for hand hygiene training prior to the outbreak, management could not show broader infection control practices training for all staff." "The home's infection control co-ordinator was on planned leave from August 31, 2017 until September 25, 2017". “The ‘environmental services supervisor’, who was in charge of cleaning, also went on leave, which left the home's ‘leisure and lifestyle co-ordinator’, who had no recent infection control training, in charge of the cleaners. “A number of cleaning staff were home sick, and "existing numbers ... were not increased to undertake infectious cleaning processes,” The Age said.
Turnover of managers ■ St John’s Village Chief Executive Officer Glenn Phelps resigned last year in the wake of an investigation into the influenza deaths at the facility. Care manager Neale Morris was also stood aside, the Wangaratta Chronicle reported. Mr Phelps was the fourth CEO or acting CEO at the aged care centre in less than three years. Previously, Rob Hankins decided not to extend his contract in that position after just six months in the role. Peter Hill left St John’s in February 2015 after two years in the job. In November 2016 St John’s had to repay a couple at the retirement village their share of at least $300,000 wrongly charged to residents for more than a decade. Bishop John Parkes was Acting CEO for a time, the Wangaratta Chronicle said.