A Message From Shared Health

27 April 2020

Attention: Families and Support Persons of Residents of Licensed Personal Care Homes

Across Manitoba, personal care homes and other long term care facilities have taken every possible step to decrease the risk of COVID-19 within our facilities. This has included strict infection and control precautions, enhanced cleaning protocols, visitor restriction, daily screening of staff before shift and the introduction of personal protective equipment.

Across Canada, the risk of COVID-19 poses to the residents of personal care homes is clear. Efforts to prevent, quickly identify and contain ‘outbreaks’ of COVID-19 are vital to protecting populations that are most vulnerable to serious illness and death from this virus.

For the safety of your loved ones, and at the requirement of public health officials, we are implementing a single-site staffing model for nursing and support staff working in licensed personal care homes effective May 1, 2020.

This change will limit the number of licensed personal care homes that nursing, and support staff work in to one. 

We understand this change may be concerning to you and it is important that you understand it is being made to help protect your loved one from the risk this virus poses to them. We are committed to continuity of care and to minimizing the disruption and anxiety that it may cause for your loved one. 

It is our expectation that the dedication of the staff to a single site will not only limit the risk of exposure to your family member but may also increase the continuity of their care provider(s).

As we implement this new direction, we will carefully monitor staff levels, standards of care, ensure staff have appropriate personal protective equipment for the work they do, and continue to enforce the other restrictions already in place to minimize the risks of an outbreak.

We understand you will have questions and we are committed to provide information as it becomes available.

We appreciate your understanding as we implement these elevated precautions to protect our residents, many of whom have underlying medical conditions that put them at greatest risk of becoming severely ill due to COVID-19.

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