Price of Inconsistent Care
Granted, scheduling multiple workers, for numerous patients, some only on a temporary basis, is not simple or easy. After all you have to take into account the experience levels, the type of care being required by the worker, as well as seniority & location, but it is a doable task. Naturally that assumes that you have sufficient workers, that you have qualified staff at all levels, with appropriate skills for the needed tasks.
Beacon Community Services seems to have none of that.
In approximately six weeks of twice daily service, where I cannot even begin to count the number of workers that have shown up here, one has to assume that they simply DO NOT have the right schedulign personnel, or programs, or simply DO NOT care about their Patients, but are only concerned with meeting their basic contract requirements.
Which brings up the question, exactly what are those terms in the contract?
With workers showing up twice a day, seven days a week, you would assume that it would simply be a matter of assigning one to three people for each shift. In other words, you get a person who is available, for four or three days, at that time, and assign them to ONE SINGLE PATIENT.
That Assumes You Care About Quality of Service.
Old people are not easy, that is a given. In addition, routine is very important to them, so it would make sense, that if you truly cared about them, you would move heaven & earth to insure they had some sort of consistent care. THAT MEANS REGULAR WORKERS NOT A CONSTANT INFLUX OF NEW FACES & PERSONALITIES.
It would be nice too, if workers were INFORMED of the care plan, which is in place, and that when those plans are changed, altered, THEY ARE UPDATED.
AGAIN, something Beacon Community Services isn’t very good at.
YET, I think the whole situation is not just letting the blame lie on a corporate entity, but on the Government Agency that actually CONTRACTS THIS WORK OUT. It would seem to me, that some form of OVERSIGHT would be in order, and yet from I have seen IN NEALRY SIX WEEKS, there really isn’t any.
NO ONE from VIHA has bothered to call, never mind show up, to check on the quality of service, even though there have been several complaints made about that service. It boggles my mind, to think of how UNCARING VIHA is in doing it duty.
The price of all this, is added stress to everyone involved. That includes the personnel from Beacon, from VIHA but more importantly, the PATIENT HIS/HERSELF. As well, it is the stress that is added to the 24/7 caregiver.
Do you know what it is like, to sit and wonder if someone will show up, or if they do, who it will be? Oh sure, they have a schedule you can check, but that doesn’t guarantee that it’ll be the person listed, who shows up. Then too, there is the time factor. A person may be scheduled for 9AM, but Beacon has until 1PM to have someone show up.
In other words, it is like the Cable Guy. Be home between Noon & 4PM as someone will eventually show up.
I don’t know how others handle this. For myself, for mother, it is a tough and arduous situation. It has even reached the point where she is asking me, would I mind helping her wash her private region, so as to simply avoid the stress of incompetent staff, of incomplete washing, of being rushed, and of rough handling. AND THAT IS JUST AFTER SIX WEEKS !
HOW IS THIS HOME SUPPORT?
Blind Trust
I wonder, if when Governments grant licenses or contracts to Private Firms, for health care, if they realize the amount of BLIND TRUST they are asking from us. I mean we have Beacon Community Services providing home support for Mom, twice a day, every day of the week. Rarely do we ge the same worker, it seems, so either this company has a ton of employees that they cycle, or they keep hiring new one’s to replace those who leave.
And we are expected to accept that they know what they are doing.
Somehow, that simply isn’t sitting well with me. Like last night, nice lady, not old, but in conversation she’s only been in Victoria a little bit, moved from Nova Scotia, and has been with Beacon for a few days.
How does that sound to you? Any FLAGS popping up?
Does for me, because the aftermath is, she was nice, but not with the program. Her technique wasn’t the best, and well, we all know the old saying “Hell is paved with good intentions” and when it comes to my Mother, just how much trust, should I be asked to give, to nameless workers that just show up?
I wonder how Carol James, or Gordon Campbell, would feel, if they had to rely on Home Support from a private firm, and NOT know anything about the company, or its hiring policies, or its qualifications? Would they intrust their loved one’s to their care, or would they demand some form of checks?
Now, maybe the Government is satisfied, but again, more BLIND TRUST HERE. I mean they are asking us, to TRUST that they are insuring tough regulations & requirements from the firms they hire, to help us out. I don’t know, if perhaps we aren’t really just shooting ourselves in the foot, because let’s face it, a private company has one major goal, AND THAT IS TO MAKE MONEY.
So where are they cutting costs, in tough economic times? Is it in the training? How about the education requirements of its workers? How about their strength? I mean seriously, these people have to lift others, and not everyone is a tiny lady like my mom, so are they given any formal and explicit training, on how to properly lift up an elderly patient?
Time to ask, what is our Government expecting, demanding, from these private firms, if anything but a cheap contract price?
