Blackadar inspection finds dirt, mould, leaks, rooms in disrepair and residents left for hours with no power
Provincial inspections of a Dundas long-term care home detail how it's falling into disrepair.
Blackadar Continuing Care Centre was found by inspectors to need a long list of maintenance and a good cleaning.
Dust, dirt and what appeared to be mould were observed in the kitchen and dining room. Bathing areas and resident rooms were also found to be dirty with broken closet doors, peeling paint on the walls and cracked floor tiles in the latest Ministry of Long-Term Care inspection report dated Feb. 22.
In addition, the home has no guaranteed access to a generator that can power essential services during an outage. This issue has been flagged twice during Ministry of Long-Term Care inspections that reported dangerous situations in outages that lasted 5.75 hours in 2021 and more than 13 hours on Dec. 23, 2022.
These conditions can potentially lead to the actual harm of residents," stated the February inspection report.
The for-profit home at 101 Creighton Rd. - near Governors Road - is managed by Extendicare and owned by Elite Developments and H&S Holdings.
Extendicare declined comment. Haidar Sakhi, CEO of H&S Holdings, said the owners are in the process of reviewing the inspection report with Extendicare.
The future of Blackadar is unclear as the owners have a redevelopment plan for the site that would see the long-term care home close and be replaced with a nine storey, 226-unit residential building. They already shut down the adjoining retirement residence at 99 Creighton Rd. two years ago and submitted the request for formal consultation to the city.
However, the province has no knowledge of this plan, said Jake Roseman, spokesperson for Minister of Long-Term Care Paul Calandra.
Blackadar has not advised the Ministry of Long-Term Care of any plans to close, and the ministry is not in receipt of a closure plan," Roseman said in a statement.
The province requires formal written notice of a closure at least five years before the intended date. The licence for the home expires in June 2025 but that doesn't change the requirement.
The home is scheduled to take in new residents as only 55 of its 60 beds are full, said Roseman.
He said the ministry is following up on the inspection that found noncompliance related to emergency plans, housekeeping, cleanliness, repair and generator access.
The home has been ordered to have sufficient generators by June 30 with a written plan for achieving compliance by March 24.
The inspection that led to the order was partly prompted by concerned staff complaining to the ministry about what they were up against when the power went out on Dec. 23 at 5 p.m.
The generator didn't come on because the gas line was frozen. A backup generator wasn't available until the next day. Management found a technician to fix the existing generator but it took until 11:15 p.m. for any power to be restored.
It meant the home had no power for more than six hours during the winter.
Although there was no report of resident harm, the potential for harm was high as the key safety operational systems were not functioning," stated the inspection.
However, there were still troubling gaps once the generator was restored because it was insufficient to power all of the essential services in the home.
The inspectors described it as a small generator with a maximum capacity of 9,000 watts, so it could handle only the home's heating, magnetic door locks, telephone system, fire alarms and a few electrical outlets on the main floor.
That left residents in the dark without call bells or elevators for over 13 hours until the power came back on at 6:30 a.m. on Dec. 24. The inspectors found there wasn't even adequate flashlights available.
There was also no way to power kitchen appliances and refrigeration for food and vaccines beyond the few outlets on the main floor.
In addition, there were no extension cords to get to the working outlets so a maintenance staff went to their own home to get a 100-foot cord.
The checklists on how to handle the power outage were not customized to the home and not all staff were informed about what to do in this situation. The emergency plan was missing many key elements about supplies, equipment and resources needed to manage in such an emergency.
The ministry received a complaint from staff identifying that there was no emergency training provided and there was no management support during the power outage," stated the report.
Many of these shortfalls were known 18 months before the December power outage because they were flagged in an inspection report dated June 1, 2021.
Again, the inspection was partly prompted by a complaint about the home going for 5.75 hours with no power during an outage.
The administrator acknowledged that they did not have a contingency plan in place for access to a generator," stated the 2021 inspection report.
The home's call bells were not working and there was no documentation to confirm that residents were checked every 15 minutes.
Two residents were found in the stairwells during the power outage because the doors weren't being consistently monitored.
A PSW indicated that instead of a staff member monitoring the stairwells, chairs were placed in front of the stairwell doors when they needed to provide care to residents," stated the report.
Emergency lighting powered by batteries didn't last long enough so the home was plunged into darkness. There were no working elevators. It's unclear if there was any heat to the building and staff were not aware of any working electrical outlets.
The home was given six months to get guaranteed access to a generator that could be up and running within three hours of a power outage - it was a written notice instead of the compliance order now issued in the February report.
The generator is just one of a number of maintenance issues that have been identified at the home.
Inspectors found a long list of needed repairs when they visited over 11 days from Dec. 29, 2022, to Jan. 18.
The licensee has failed to ensure there are schedules and procedures in place for routine, preventive, and remedial maintenance," stated the February inspection report.
The home hasn't done an audit of resident rooms and washrooms since June 2021 and inspectors found a number of areas in disrepair including:
- Windowsills in many resident bedrooms were not smooth and tight-fitting but had exposed metal and loose material.
- Bifold closet doors were heavily scratched, off track due to lost springs, could not stay closed or missing altogether;
- Vinyl baseboards on walls next to the closets were loose, not adhered to the walls or were ripped.
- Ensuite washroom doors had peeling paint, were heavily scuffed, scraped or damaged.
- Drywall repairs were not painted, walls had peeling paint and wallpaper or were heavily scuffed.
- Light pulls were missing for over-bed light fixtures;
- PVC flooring tile was lifting, cracked or had corners missing in resident rooms and there were tiles missing in the laundry room.
- One washing machine was leaking in the laundry area, apparently for several years.
- Men's public bathroom door on the first-floor could not close properly and was getting stuck on the door frame.
- Wall tiles were missing in the third-floor dining room.
In addition, the inspection noted the ceiling in the second-floor tub and shower room was discoloured - a sign of past water damage. The source of the water was from the third-floor shower area leaking down but no repairs had been done despite an engineering assessment identifying the problem on Aug. 11.
The inspectors also took issue with the cleanliness of the home. Part of the reason for the February inspection was a complaint about resident rooms, dining rooms and air conditioners being dirty.
The inspectors found bath tubs weren't cleaned after each use and resident rooms had a buildup of dust.
The floors and walls in the dishwashing area were observed with dust and dirt and possible mould," stated the inspection. Areas behind cooking equipment had a buildup of debris. When inspecting the dining room on the main floor, windowsills were observed with dust and dirt and the air conditioner on the wall was observed with a black like substance which resembled mould."
-With files from Hamilton Community News
Joanna Frketich is a health reporter at The Spectator. jfrketich@thespec.com