Health authorities in Quebec are investigating after a woman visiting a Trois Rivieres seniors’ residence recorded video of two elderly people lying on the floor of their rooms.
It appears that both seniors had fallen in separate rooms, seemingly without anyone aware that they were in need of help.
The incidents were caught on tape by Johanne Panneton, who was visiting her mother at the Cooke Residence last Wednesday.
She said she saw an elderly man on the floor crying out for help, and an alarm going off.
Panneton continued down the hallway toward her mother, she said, only to see a woman in another room also lying on the floor. Panneton said it took several minutes before the seniors were helped by staff.
“I ran around the corridor, calling out loud, looking for help but there was no one,” she said in an interview with CTV Montreal. “That’s when I decided to take out my phone and record the video.”
Panneton said two staff members on shift at the time were busy tending to other people, while a third was on dinner break.
The administration for the Cooke Residence did not speak to media on Monday, but said over the weekend that the home was within government guidelines, which call for a ratio of one employee per 13 residents during the early evening hours.
But the head of FPCU, an umbrella group that represents people in hundreds of publicly funded homes across the province, says those staffing numbers need to be flexible.
“In this case, these people need more help, and from our point of view, the norm should be adapted for more attendants to work at that time,” said FPCU director Pierre Blain.
The administration at Cooke Residence said that the two patients seen in Panneton’s video were only on the floor for a couple of minutes. But Panneton disputes that, saying it took between eight and 10 minutes before anyone arrived.
Patients’ rights advocate Paul Brunet told CTV Montreal he was skeptical of the residence’s claim that the patients were only on the floor for a couple of minutes.
“It’s like if they had fallen the minute the video started,” Brunet said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Brunet said the video also reveals a lack of preventative measures against falls.
“For example, the height of the beds, the cushioned floor that was absent, the sides of the bed which were down,” said Brunet, who is chair of the Council for the Protection of Patients.
The local health board in Trois Rivieres is investigating. Quebec Health Minister Gaetan Barrette said he’ll await the results of the report before commenting on the matter.
But both Blain and Brunet say the workers shouldn’t be blamed. It’s up to the administration, they said, to ensure there’s adequate staffing.
There are an estimated 80,000 reported falls each year in Quebec seniors’ institutions, which amount to a chronic problem that needs to be addressed, the advocates said.
“It happens every day, everywhere, in every institution,” Blain said.
