George Le Masurier photo
Bishop gifts St. Joe’s Comox site to Providence Health Care
The Views at St. Joe’s has been gifted to a new entity called the Providence Residential & Community Care Services Society (PRCC).
Chair of the St. Joe’s Board of Trustees Chris Kelsey told Decafnation last night the Bishop of Victoria has given St. Joe’s, including its 17 acres of property at the top of Comox Hill to the nonprofit company.
Providence Health Care is a British Columbia Catholic health care organization that operates St. Paul’s Hospital and seven community care facilities in the Lower Mainland. The Bishop of Victoria sits on the board of a society that owns Providence.
The Views at St. Joe’s is Providence’s first acquisition outside the Lower Mainland and is, at the moment, the sole operating facility of the newly-formed PRCC. It’s expected that Providence’s other community care facilities will eventually be moved in the new company.
The acquisition means that, at the closing date of April 1, the current St. Joe’s board will be dissolved. But Kelsey has been appointed Vice Chair of PRCC, and he said there will always be representation on its board.
“What this means is, we’re not going anywhere,” Kelsey said.
Kelsey said the St. Joe’s board starting working on its future role four years ago, when it became clear that Island Health was closing down its acute care hospital. And, he said, Providence shares their vision of a campus of care dedicated for seniors.
“With Providence, we’re building an organization focused solely on seniors care,” he said. “A dementia village concept is part of that plan.”
Running an acute care hospital requires “90 percent of your attention and your budget,” leaving less flexibility to make seniors care better.
“Now we can focus just on that,” he said.
The Views staff will become PRCC employees and medical staff will receive their privileges through the new company.
FURTHER READING: Providence Residential & Community Care
To get out from under the financial restrictions of the Hospital Act, it’s the intent to eventually make PRCC an independent entity, and distance itself from Providence hospitals. That would allow PRCC to borrow funds for capital project, which it cannot do under the Hospital Act.
That’s important for The Views, which needs to be modernized, as do several of Providence’s existing and aging seniors facilities the Lower Mainland.
Providence assisted St. Joe’s in preparing its proposal for the new Comox Valley long-term care beds.
But Kelsey said he does not believe St. Joe’s is the leading proponent for the news beds.
“If that were the case, we would be talking by now. And we’re not,” he said.
But that won’t delay PRCC from moving ahead with a new vision for the St. Joe’s site.
“Whether or not we receive any of the new long-term care beds from Island Health, we will move ahead with a redevelopment of The Views,” Kelsey said. “Either through a competitive process or direct negotiation.”
Kelsey said St. Joe’s and Providence have been working with Island Health and the Ministry of Health through the transfer of ownership process, and both have supported the change.
The Views Administrative Officer Michael Aikins said the change in ownership actually accelerates the redevelopment plans.
“With PPRC as owner, we’re going to build a community with various levels of housing and care options that support seniors, and their spouses and partners, to age in place on a single campus — ranging from independent living, long-term care and specialized dementia care and neighbourhoods,” he said in a news release.
WHO IS PROVIDENCE
HEALTH CARE?
Compassionate care for over a century
Providence Health Care’s commitment to serving those most in need began more than 120 years ago when the Sisters of Providence
came to Vancouver and opened St. Paul’s Hospital, a 25-bed “cottage” on the path to English Bay. Now operating 17 sites, Providence
Health Care is a health and wellness resource for families, patients and residents from all parts of British Columbia.
Providence Health Care was formed in 2000 through the consolidation of CHARA Health Care Society, Holy Family Hospital and St.
Paul’s Hospital, and is now one of the largest Catholic health care organizations in Canada. Providence sites include two acute care
hospitals, five residential care homes, an assisted living residence, a rehabilitation centre, seven community dialysis units, a hospice,
an addictions clinic and a youth health clinic.
Living our values
To this day, Providence continues the mission of the five founding congregations of sisters by meeting the physical, emotional, social
and spiritual needs of patients through compassionate care, teaching and research. Providence welcomes the challenge of caring for
some of society’s most vulnerable populations.
Global leader in health care excellence and innovation
Providence is home to St. Paul’s Hospital. St. Paul’s serves 174,000 unique patients who account for over 500,000 visits annually.
As one of two adult academic health sciences centres in B.C. (affiliated with the University of British Columbia and other postsecondary institutions), St. Paul’s is a renowned acute care hospital recognized provincially, nationally and internationally for its
work, including its several centres of excellence and affiliated research programs. In coordination with its health partners – including
the Ministry of Health, Vancouver Coastal Health and the Provincial Health Services Authority – the Providence Health Care Research
Institute leads research in more than 30 clinical specialties. This research continues to advance the lives of British Columbians
every day.
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I had no experience with Providence Health Care except the MAID controversy aired in our local newspaper. Last April, my 93 year old mother, still living in her own home, fell and fractured her hip. Due to her age and other health issues she was transferred to St. Paul’s for treatment, from her local small hospital. After recovering from surgery, it was determined she could again function in her own home after therapy. She was transferred to Holy Family, a rehabilitation facility In south Vancouver. Both St. Paul’s and Holy Family are part of the Providence Health Authority. In both facilities she received excellent, compassionate and personalized care. Rather than focus on the single issue of MAID, I think people should educate themselves on the full range of services and underlying values that Providence Health works under. I am definitely a supported as I have seen the quality health care they provide.
I sure wish this plan could also include housing and care options for those with mental health issues. Often their needs are similar to seniors and it would be nice for the seniors to be able to mingle with younger people. Is this a possibility?
Kate.
My understanding is that the “Campus of Care” being constructed through Providence (PRCC) may also include a continuum of housing for low income families, some high density market housing as well as seniors housing, who are not necessarily needing assisted care. I do hope that a range of housing is constructed on this wonderful site. I love the idea of the dementia village and I also love the statistics put forth by Mr McDonald. Great story George
I am a nurse currently working at the Views and I take issue with all these conversations surrounding MAID. I personally support and can appreciate the right to choose MAID. What I don’t appreciate is uneducated folks making comments on what death without MAID looks like within the walls of a faith based facility. I work alongside one of the best group of doctors and nurses this Valley has to offer. We give quality to people during their life process AND their dying process. Perhaps before you form steadfast opinions, you should educate yourself on what we do as care providers. Speak to the families who have had their loved ones live and die with us. Did you know we have private rooms for people to pass with their loved ones at their side? Or that our doctors, nurses and care staff sit with families, engage in what the process looks like for them and work 100% to ensure end of life comfort for the individual as well as those who love them? We perhaps don’t offer them a passing with the defined end that MAID would, but we do offer them beautiful, amazing moments with their families and the care team they have come to love and trust. And there is value in that death with dignity doesn’t have to look one particular way. I also encourage people to educate themselves about the rise of dementia and what this new facility will mean for our seniors living with this diagnosis. Providence Health was the organization with the vision, means and desire to see this through for our community. They are rising up to support another very important aspect… dignity in life!!!
I can tell you that the staff who decided to stay on with St. Joseph’s, did so because we support and are excited to be a part of a something so amazing for our community. Life is not always made up of perfect solutions. It is however made up of choices and the we are all aware there will be more than one choice of facility for people to live out their final years and or moments as they see fit.
So glad to see the dementia village proceed. I will be getting my name on that waiting list. What a gift to the Comox Valley.
Turning St. Joes into a dementia village, where every person who receives services has a dementia diagnosis and is thus disqualified from receiving MAiD, is a clever way to circumvent the MAiD conversation. I wonder, does the fact that we need to resort to working around these policies in order to provide ethical care not indicate to anyone how unethical the blanket denial of MAiD services is?
Hi George,
Based on Statistics Canada’s 2016 census, there are 4135 people 80 years of age or older living in the Comox Valley representing 6.2% of the population of 65,525. There are 18,835 people between the ages of 60 and 80 or 28.3% of the population. According to the report, Rising Tide: Alzheimer Society of Canada, 1 in 11 Canadians over 65 is currently living with dementia and the risk for dementia doubles every five years after age 65. 1 in 3 Canadians over 80 years of age is living with dementia. In ten years the number of people with dementia in Canada is expected to double.
That means there are nearly 1400 people over 80 with dementia in the Comox Valley today. Because the population in the Comox Valley is older than that of the rest of Canada (26% are 65 and older compared to 17% for the rest of Canada), we can expect the number of people with dementia to more than double to 3000 sometime in the next ten years.
The cost of caring for dementia patients is well beyond the means of most people. Residents at Hogewey, the world’s first dementia village in Holland, pay approximately $7,000 monthly, and there is a perpetual waiting list. The rates advertised for new Langley Dementia Village are: Base Rate: $6,950 per month and Complex Care Rate: $7,800 per month.
Based on the information above, there should be absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind that the transformation of St. Joseph’s Hospital into a village to humanely support the needs of dementia patients is needed. The facility will make a major contribution to the local economy during construction and operation. It will create new jobs in a variety of occupations and will acquire good and services from producers, merchants and businesses in the Comox Valley.
In order for the opportunity to be a success there needs to be careful planning and citizen input. Plans need to include the adjacent neighbourhoods as well as the Town of Comox at large. The dementia village is a village within a village and as such, it needs to integrate into a larger town plan.
Given what is known about the costs for residents, questions need to be asked about the proportion of costs born by government versus those paid by residents and their families. Because it is likely that the demand will far exceed the number of spaces available, questions need to be asked concerning the criteria for selecting residents.
This comment would not be complete without addressing “the elephant in the room”. No doubt there will be those complaining that because it is a Catholic facility, it is likely that Medically Assistance in Dying or MAiD will be prohibited. My response to that argument is that we have a public hospital nearby where MAiD is available. What is important is that we can choose how we exit this world. Some may choose to die at home… some in a hospice… some in a public hospital and some using MAiD. The new facility gives us one more option.
Cheers,
Ken McDonad
Comox, BC
Good information. Thanks, Ken.
Yes, very good information.
MAID is a red herring. If you want MAID go to another facility!
Thank you, Delores. I think there’s room in the health care community for facilities that cater to different needs. But what our whole community needs is more long-term care beds.
A couple of weeks ago, I took a look at The Views website and my first thought was also, as Ellen Rainwalker so succinctly notes, that the matter of Medical Assistance in Dying may not be accessible to residents at The View. If so, this is concerning.
It’s not really concerning, Bill. See my comment to Ellen, above.
It IS concerning that some individuals, competent to decide, will still be denied their right to MAiD, as enshrined in law, in their home at the Views. They have to be discharged to a different location. This is at odds with the philosophy of aging – and dying – in place.
So this means that people in this facility still will not be able to access Medical Assistance in Dying if they want to.
Thanks for your comment, Ellen. I’m sure you know, however, that most of the people in The Views have dementia and under present legislation could not qualify for MAiD. I’m glad MAiD exists, but feel no need to make it a requirement of a dementia village concept facility where it hardly applies.