Local coordinators in each CHSLD | Problems that get solved faster

Since the fall of 2020, the 310 public CHSLDs in the province can count on a local coordinator who is involved in the daily management of each establishment. At the CHSLD du Chevalier-De Lévis, in Longueuil, this appointment has made life easier for many residents and employees.

Ariane Lacoursiere
The Press

Dolorès Lavoie has been living at the CHSLD du Chevalier-De Lévis for six years. She lived through the time before 2020, when a single coordinator watched over four CHSLDs in the sector, including her own. Since October 2020, Geneviève Bureau has been appointed as local coordinator. Every day of the week, the manager is present in the establishment and manages all the small problems that may arise.

“When you need something or you have a problem, you go see her, and everything is sorted out,” says M^me The way. The resident explains, for example, that sometimes the device used to transfer her from her wheelchair to her bed breaks. Or that the ice machine on his floor jams. ” I’m going to see her [Geneviève Bureau]and everything works out”, testifies M^me The way. And before, how was it? “We were waiting! says the resident, laughing.

Geneviève Bureau’s job is to ensure the quality of care given to the 146 residents of the CHSLD du Chevalier-De Lévis. Also to ensure that there are enough staff in place, to communicate with families and residents as well as to supervise infection prevention and control. Sometimes, she can also solve simpler problems, such as moving a garbage can outside or installing shelves in strategic places in the establishment.

Fewer delays

After the first wave of COVID-19, which caused a real slaughter in CHSLDs in Quebec, the Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, asked that a coordinator be hired in each CHSLD in the province.

A nurse by training and former head of unit in a CHSLD, Geneviève Bureau believes that having a manager on site makes it possible to “solve problems more quickly”. “If I have a hatching unit and I have to replace the reusable meal trays with disposable trays, before, as unit head, I did not have the authority to ask the kitchens to make the change. I had to make the request to the coordinator who, despite his good will, was not always there. He pushed the request. Now, I cross the corridor, I make the request directly, and everything falls into place fairly quickly,” she explains.

“There was more bureaucracy before,” says Caroline Barbeau, unit head at the CHSLD du Chevalier-De Lévis. Now there are clearly fewer delays. »

According to M^me Office, one of the advantages of having a local coordinator is that families, employees and residents alike can contact him directly. “They see us. We are here. And they come to us with their requests. We are aware of what is happening in our center,” she said.

” [D]in the right direction”

Co-president of the Community of practice of physicians in CHSLDs, the D^D Sophie Zhang indicates that the presence of a manager responsible for each CHSLD “consensus” in the network. “This improves the organization of care and services, in particular the management of outbreaks, and the fluidity of communications,” she specifies. The D^D Zhang points out, however, that collaboration between clinical and administrative staff is not yet established in all CHSLDs. “But we are in the right direction,” she said.

The D^D Zhang affirms that more material and financial resources will be necessary in order to achieve “true decentralized management” and that the CHSLDs are not “drowned in the large structure of the CISSSs and CIUSSSs, which still tends too much to be hospitalized. -centric”.

The Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS-CSN), which represents many attendants to CHSLD beneficiaries, notes that while “any help is welcome, several unions indicate that they have not seen much difference” in following the arrival of local managers. Some unions report better work organization, but the daily lives of workers remain substantially the same, says spokesperson Hubert Forcier.

The D^D Zhang is also keen to point out that while the presence of local managers is positive, it “will not completely solve the shortage of human resources” affecting CHSLDs in the province. Dolores Lavoie sees it. If the resident has only good words for the staff members at the CHSLD du Chevalier-De Lévis, she believes that they are “not enough”.

More time for residents

Caroline Barbeau affirms that the arrival of a coordinator has lightened the work of unit heads, who have more time to devote to residents and spend less time managing problems. It must be said that the CHSLD du Chevalier-De Lévis now has three unit heads rather than two.

“Before, we were more in crisis management. Now we have more time to sit down with the families, do training with the teams, value the work of the nurses and the attendants, ”lists Ms.^me Barbel.

A beneficiary attendant at the CHSLD du Chevalier-De Lévis for 13 years, Marcelle Pierre says that, in her opinion, the greatest benefit of having a local manager is proximity. “Follow-ups are faster,” she says.

By showing the CHSLD to the team of The Press, Geneviève Bureau realizes when she gets out of an elevator that it is too hot. She apologizes. “I’m going to go to maintenance and fix this right away. You see, this is a concrete example of what can be done now,” she says.