Business View Magazine - September 2015

118 Business View - September 2015 Business View - September 2015 119 hours are broken down into 5 minute intervals of ob- servation. During the observation period, an assessor will note everything he or she sees, hears, smells, or feels, with specific notation made to any interaction or conversation between a resident and others. Follow- ing the observation, the assessor grades the 5-minute block of time into one of the following categories: posi- tive social care, positive personal care, neutral care, negative protective/controlling care, and negative re- strictive care. The ultimate aim is to have only positive care provided to residents. Jake Wiebe, Salem Home’s Finance Officer, details how the QUIS model became integral to Salem Home’s treatment paradigm: “This goes back a couple of years when we attended a leadership summit,” he relates. “The point in the summit was: ‘To speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.’ We can’t wait for the residents to tell us what they need because many times they’re unable to verbalize or communicate their needs to us. We do the measuring, using the QUIS tool to measure what the resident is actually experiencing. And those measurements drive our decisions.” Janzen elaborates: “The QUIS is becoming our road map on what we’re doing, how we approach care, and what kind of education the staff needs. We literally measure what we do. When we make changes, we’re not just making changes because we think it’s a good idea. There is a process in place that determines what kind of interactions and what kind of an actual, lived experience a resident has. It’s not what we think it is, but what the resident’s actual experience is. And that really changes how we look at things and what we will do next. Through the results of the evaluation, we have made physical changes to our building, attempted to make the atmosphere more home-like, and offered education to our staff on how to best care for persons affected with dementia - focusing activities on building upon strengths that remain, not focusing on what can no longer be done.” Janzen gives another example of how the Salem Home responds to the needs and desires of residents. In 2013, its annual, resident satisfaction survey indicat- ed that people were unhappy about the food. In fact, the satisfaction ratio measured only 80 percent. “So we started looking at what we could do differently with the meals,” she says. “And we came across a model where you can offer residents a choice where they could see and smell the food before it is served, so they can determine what it is they want to eat. So we trialed that. The food hadn’t changed - the only thing that changed was that the residents were given a choice. And the next survey came in at 94 percent.” But since the cooks, themselves, were the ones who served the meals, the Home’s administration now needed to figure out a way to give them more time to serve, without sacrificing cooking quality. The solution was to buy a “rational cooking center,” a computerized cooking unit, used in restaurants and institutions, that replaces seven pieces of kitchen equipment. The unit worked so well, that the Home now has two! In addition to its personal care sector, Salem Home is one of only two personal care homes in Manitoba with a Behavior Treatment Unit (BTU), a specifically designed unit and program for those having difficulty adapting in a normal care environment. Janzen ex- plains: “Residents who have responsive behaviors – aggression, sexually inappropriateness, etc. – who cannot relate to a PCH environment, have a special unit with a geriatric psychiatrist, a geriatrician, a psy- chologist, and psychiatric nurses, who will determine what the triggers for the behaviors are, wean them off of any current medications which might be causing the behaviors, and develop a care plan so that the triggers aren’t part of it.” The Behavior Treatment Unit also has Healthcare Healthcare