| Written by Tony Gosgnach, Catholic Register Special,
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 HAMILTON, Ont. - A Catholic home care agency and another service, which together provided 80 per cent of all home care nursing in the community, have narrowly escaped having all their work taken away by the government office that issues the contracts.
St. Joseph’s Home Care, which has provided home nursing care in the Hamilton area for more than 80 years, had been advised in December that it, along with Hamilton’s Victorian Order of Nurses, had failed to qualify for provincial funding, based on a four-stage evaluation procedure administered by the local Community Care Access Centre. That prompted an outcry from various sectors of the community, which led local MPPs to approach Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman with news of the overwhelmingly negative reaction, including a protest rally attended by 1,500 people.
“It was obvious to the minister … that there were real strong concerns within the community the way (the process) was unfolding,” said Laurel Ostfield, a spokesperson for Smitherman’s office. “It was becoming apparent that there was going to be an issue of continuity of care, because you’ve got relationships that are established between home care providers and the patients. It’s really important to maintain those relationships.”
A managed competition process for home care nursing services had been put in place by the former Progressive Conservative government in 1997. Seven years later, Smitherman commissioned former health minister Elinor Caplan to review that arrangement, which resulted in many though not all of her 70 recommendations being implemented in 2006. In the fall, both St. Joe’s and the VON were told they were disqualified from further participation in the bidding process. The issue was not price but, seemingly, how they filled out the application.
If Smitherman had not stepped in, the two largest providers would have had to lay off hundreds of nurses and shrink their operations, while the winning applicant would have had to scramble to hire enough nurses to meet its obligations. Nurses are in extremely short supply.
But as of Jan. 28, said Ostfield, “All the contracts that affect client services across the province have been halted, while we take the time to look at the process … and see what’s the best way to move forward so we can maintain the very important relationships that are established between home care providers and clients.”
That was good news for Kim Ciavarella, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s Home Care, who had been trying to cope with a situation that included seeing a half-dozen or so nurses resign to seek more secure employment elsewhere because of the uncertainty.
“We did have some turnover of nurses because of the disqualification,” she said. “We will try to recruit other nurses at this point.”
Fortunately, an even more serious turn of events was avoided, in which St. Joseph’s Home Care was ready to issue layoff notices to about 100 nurses and 30 management and administrative staff about a week after the news from Smitherman’s office came in.
“It came at the right time,” said Ciavarella. “We have a lot of long-service employees, so (the review period) might be enough to bridge them to retirement … We await further direction from the ministry and our Community Care Access Centre.”
St. Joseph’s Home Care was founded as SEN (St. Elizabeth’s Nurses) Community Health Care by the bishop of Hamilton. Its name was changed in the mid-1990s to more closely align it with the major local Catholic hospital, St. Joseph’s Healthcare. Both St. Joseph’s Home Care and the hospital are part of St. Joseph’s Health System, founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Hamilton. The home care agency currently provides nursing and personal support services, supportive housing programs and volunteer programs.
According to Ciavarella, it hopes to be performing those functions for some time yet.
“Things at the moment are not business as usual, but we are continuing to provide the care in the community and look forward to doing so in the future,” she said.
(Gosgnach is a freelance writer in Hamilton, Ont.)
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