Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Windsor is preparing to hire at least 30 Personal Support Workers as the hospital moves to a new model of care.
Starting in November, the non-acute care hospital will move to a Team-Based Care system, focusing on maximizing the role of Registered Nurses and introducing Personal Support Workers to the staffing mix.
Bill Marra, President and CEO of HDGH, says they've learned during the pandemic that a different approach will improve the ability to provide patient service.
This model of care will be applied to the Complex Medical Care program, which Marra says will allow the nursing staff to practice the whole scope of the clinical services they were trained for, while the PSWs will provide other support services.
"Whether it be associated with feeding, personal hygiene, with taking care of a number of non-clinical requirements for patients that has a significant impact on quality of care and quality of stay," he says.
Marra points out that they are a post acute care hospital and the length of stay at their hospital is quite a bit longer.
"It's not unusual to have a length of stay that exceeds one month in Complex Medical Care. In our rehab beds it exceeds three weeks at times, four weeks," he says. "So these are not short stays, so length of stay is a significant aspect of this discussion and they type of medical care they require is a driving force in this discussion as well."
Marra says they want to ensure all aspects of patient stay are addressed in a team work effort, rather than one nurse assigned to one patient.
"So that all the care is delivered in a timely fashion. Sometimes it's something just as simple as being able to have a shower everyday, especially when you're hearing for a lengthy period of time," she says, "It's quality of care issues and quality of care conditions that are above and beyond the clinical piece that these PSWs can support us with, and that's what we're excited about."
Marra adds the change in the way service is delivered will not result in any job losses.
Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare is located at 1453 Prince Rd. in Windsor.