A new report by the Health Quality Council of Alberta (Canada) said Alberta Health Services (AHS) needs to decide who in the organization is responsible for ensuring nursing homes, supportive living facilities and home care contractors deliver quality care, according to an article on the Calgary Herald website.
“Responsibility for monitoring continuing care contracts is held in various AHS departments, resulting in an ‘everybody is responsible” situation,” the report said.
Investigators with the council also discovered 20-year-old contracts — inherited by AHS when it was created in 2008 — that meant that three-quarters of supportive living facilities, two thirds of home care sites and one quarter of nursing homes were not required and had not bothered to seek accreditation by an outside agency.
Health Minister Fred Horne said Alberta will soon require all facilities and home care providers to be get a third-party seal of approval.