FORT FRANCES—All 10 Rainy River District municipalities have approved the 10-year funding agreement with Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc. for the upkeep of Rainycrest Home for the Aged here, meaning the deal to permanently transfer ownership and responsibility of it to Riverside can proceed.
“The verbal response is that every one of them has passed the needed resolutions,” said Riverside CEO Wayne Woods. “I have six written ones in hand and I’m assured that I’m going to get the rest of them by the end of this week.”
Those resolutions then will be passed along to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care for final approval, with Oct. 18 set for the closing date.
“Then we still have to work it through the Ministry of Health. It’s almost like a three-party agreement,” Woods noted.
“If all goes well, then on Oct. 19 Riverside takes over permanently,” he added.
“The reality is we have been doing it for over a year-and-a-half now, so it’s not going to make much difference to the way the place [Rainycrest] operates or to the employees.”
The deal to transfer ownership of Rainycrest to Riverside includes a promise from the ministry to add 21 beds at the home as well as an infusion of $1.35 million in capital grants.
“Riverside has been pushing to get this done,” Woods noted. “We’re the ones that negotiated the 21 extra beds and the extra funding, and identified all the shortfalls on the capital.”
There are roughly 100 people on the waiting list for admission into Rainycrest. Some of those people end up in hospital because they no longer can live at home—taking up beds intended for chronic-care patients.
The addition of 21 more beds at Rainycrest hopefully will free up some of the beds at La Verendrye hospital, Woods said.
“Our intention from the beginning was to find a system that works. Those 21 beds were imperative,” he stressed.
No renovations will be required to make room for the beds. The home currently holds about 145 beds, but has the capacity for more. Those rooms will need to be equipped and furnished.
The addition of 21 new beds will bring the total in Rainycrest to about 166.
As first reported in last week’s Times, the agreement also calls for nine of the 10 district municipalities to continue supporting Rainycrest with an annual funding contribution, beginning with 2006 levels and decreasing by 10 percent each year until it is phased out entirely by 2017.
Atikokan, instead, will put its annual Rainycrest contribution of about $200,000 towards the Atikokan General Hospital for long-term care programs there.
“We just thought they would be better served that way,” Woods said, noting there were only about two Atikokan residents in Rainycrest while that municipality paid the second-highest levy to the home.
“It just didn’t make any sense,” he said.
“We’re very excited about it and very pleased,” said Atikokan Mayor Dennis Brown, noting his town has wanted this arrangement for more than 20 years.
Mayor Brown, who is vice-chair of the Rainycrest board of management, is pleased with the entire deal.
“This is a great thing for the entire Rainy River District,” he enthused. “This is a great relief for the municipalities. And 21 more beds is something the Rainycrest board of management wanted all along.”
Mayor Brown also praised R. Scott Rowand, a consultant hired by the ministry to chair the amalgamation steering committee, for his efforts in the negotiations.
“I’m really pleased with the way Scott Rowand worked this out. We really have to give the government credit,” he noted.
The $1.35 million from the ministry is intended to cover 90 percent of the costs of urgent capital issues requiring immediate resolution—identified in a facilities assessment conducted by a team of architects and engineers earlier this year.
The assessment also identified more than $3 million worth of other needed improvements, including the installation of fire sprinklers, improvements to the HVAC system, and an expansion of the residents’ dining room.
The deal is different from the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between Riverside and Rainycrest back in May, which outlined a funding agreement that would release municipalities of all responsibility in five years rather than 10.
However, with the identification of the needed capital improvements, both sides agreed the municipalities would need to extend their contributions to 10 years.
In the past week, the municipalities of Fort Frances, Rainy River, La Vallee, Morley, Alberton, Dawson, Lake of the Woods, Emo, and Chapple all passed resolutions agreeing to the 10-year funding agreement with Riverside.
Atikokan passed its resolutions approving the deal back on Sept. 11.
With municipalities making lower and lower payments to the upkeep of the home each year, Riverside will be faced with making up for those gaps in funding.
“We’re pretty good at managing health care systems,” Woods said. “Obviously it’s going to take all the talent we’ve got in order to make that work. But I’m confident we’ve got an excellent team here.”
Funding for Rainycrest currently comes from three sources: municipal levies, resident fees, and the ministry.
Municipal contributions accounted for about $1.2 million of the home’s $9 million budget, Woods said. While that will decrease with time, income from residents’ fees and provincial funding are expected to stay the same.
The agreement also leaves open the possibility of establishing some sort of assisted living facility or rest home for people who no longer can live at home, but who do not need the 24-hour care provided at a long-term care facility.
“We know there is an identified gap, and it’s something between a person’s home and a long-term care facility,” Woods noted. “Maybe it’s assisted living.
“It’s something that doesn’t exist in Ontario yet, so we’re going to try and invent it,” he added.
“[The ministry], with us, are going to be looking at alternatives in the future. We’re obviously not there yet,” Woods admitted.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
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