POLICE ASSOCIATION OF NOVA SCOTIA 87 Nursing home abuse cases pile up, leaving heartbreak and betrayal (continued) consumers and patients are becoming more sophisticated and more able and willing to exercise their rights." Sankarsingh said there is an increased effort nowadays to care for people in their own homes as long as possible. By the time those patients enter facilities, they tend to be sicker and require a greater level of care. "I think there is an ongoing debate as to whether the longterm care sector is appropriately resourced to meet that shifting set of needs," he said. In Ferguson's case, investigators determined in their preliminary report that staff at Harbourstone "reported there was nothing they would do differently in providing care." According to the preliminary report provided to CBC News by Silverstein, the investigation under the Protection of Persons in Care Act did find gaps in documentation of Ferguson's care. There was no evidence he was referred to the facility's wound-care specialist, nor was there any sign a registered nurse assessed his bedsore. "If I had known half of what I know now, I would've fought it. I really would have.- Norma Silverstein The wound on Ferguson's buttocks was considered a stage 2 pressure ulcer on Oct. 5, meaning his skin was blistering or peeling. A physician examined him on Oct. 18 and referred him to hospital a week later on Oct. 25 because it had worsened. That day, Silverstein said she learned her father had a fever and a wound about eight centimetres in diameter on his buttocks. She brought her mother, his wife of 70 years, to his bedside. "That was very unsettling for everybody to bring a 91-yearold woman into the emergency room to say goodbye to her husband, with no prior notice that there as anything serious wrong with him," she said. Silverstein received the preliminary report nearly two weeks after her father died in January. She said Ferguson never fully recovered from the wound, though he had been moved out of hospital and into another care home before he entered palliative care. She still wonders why she didn't learn of the multiple bedsores on her father's body when they were first documented in June, and why it took so long for him to receive treatment. "If I had known half of what I know now, I would've fought it. I really would have. There's no doubt in my mind." There are approximately 7,900 long-term care beds across Nova Scotia in a range of homes, from government-run, to for-profit and non-for-profit facilities. Some facilities have hundreds of residents, others just a few. There are dozens of homes that had no reported incidents of abuse in the three-year period CBC News examined. The Health Department does not analyze the information collected by the 10-member team that inspects homes across the provinces and investigates reports of abuse under the Protection of Persons in Care Act. Sankarsingh, who oversees that team, said the department doesn't yet have the ability to look at trends that contribute to abuse. "We don't capture data in a way that lends itself to analysis easily. So there is some work that we have to do to be able to get there," he said, adding the department started using a new electronic records system two years ago that may make the process easier. Perry Sankarsingh is the senior executive director for client services and contract management at the Department of Health andWellness. (CBC) Under the Protection of Persons in Care Act, staff must respond within 24 hours when someone lodges a complaint. (CBC) John Ferguson died after entering palliative care in January 2018. (CBC) continued
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