As previously reported, recent changes at Rainycrest Home for the Aged finally prompted the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care earlier this fall to lift the suspension on admissions there that was imposed back in April.
Among those changes are a couple of new faces at Rainycrest who are helping to keep standards high.
Linda Trevisanutto is one of them. She’s the nutrition and food services supervisor who joined the Rainycrest team in late August. A mother of three, she has 25 years’ experience working at what is now Thunder Bay Regional Hospital.
“Long-term care is a new challenge for me,” she said.
Her job as nutrition and food services supervisor puts her in charge of the kitchen, which means overseeing the production and service of meals.
“Food safety is the number-one priority with me,” she stressed.
It’s her job to make sure the 21 staff who work under her follow proper procedures for handling food and preparing meals.
Trevisanutto also designs the menus. To do so, she consults with residents and a dietitian to ensure the seniors are getting both what they want and what they need.
“I will go and see new residents and find out their likes and dislikes, and if they need special diets,” she said. “We’re open to listen to what they’d like to see on the menu.”
She also plans special occasions—a part of the job Trevisanutto loves. “Things were run very, very well before I came here, so I can continue the high quality of service,” she noted.
Some of the new projects she’s working on include a new winter menu, and she has purchased special decorations and china for use by residents on their birthdays.
“I love the job. It’s so interesting and creative,” she enthused. “I love the customer service aspect of the job, the creativity of the job. It’s a great place to work.”
Another new addition to the Rainycrest team is Ramiro Matias, who started working there in July.
Matias, originally from Winnipeg and a husband and father of three, has 20 years’ experience in the hotel and restaurant management industry. When asked what duties are included in his role as environmental services supervisor, he replied, “Everything.”
“It’s mainly to look after the facility—maintenance, heating and cooling, housekeeping and laundry, all the support services,” he noted. “The safety and security of the facility and its residents is really the main job.”
This includes working with health and safety committees.
“In the last six months or so, there’s been a lot of upgrading to the policies and procedures that I’m involved with,” Matias said, adding some procedures “may have been outdated or maybe not in place.”
It is partially because of the upgrading of outdated procedures that the ministry decided to lift its suspension on admissions, he said.
“That’s only with the efforts of the management group and the employees that are on board, and changing these policies to what they are supposed to be, that we’ve been allowed to open up again.
“If we don’t continue to meet those standards and keep those policies in place, they could suspend admissions again,” he remarked.
“Even though we’re open, we’re not finished our work,” he stressed. “We have to maintain that level.”
In addition to working with the 20-25 staff immediately under him, Matias works closely with his fellow supervisors.
“I sit on a management team that involves nursing, administration, activation, and dietary. We all make decisions together,” he noted.
Because of his background in hospitality, Matias also is a help to Trevisanutto. “We tend to brainstorm to put ideas together on how to make things a little bit better,” he said.
The pair also competed together in the Times’ annual Great Chili Cook-off in late September, in which they won the People’s Choice award.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
