The Sun Country Health Region says privacy laws were behind the decision to black out a report on the Estevan Regional Nursing Home.
Sun Country came under sharp criticism from the family of Mary Mack after they discovered the copy of the report they received had all recommendations redacted from it. The report was the result of an investigation that SCHR launched after the Mack family raised concerns about their mother's care at the ERNH. The family had waited over a year for the final report and were dismayed to find all of the independent investigator's recommendations were withheld from them.
In the June 26 issue of The Mercury family spokeswoman Maggie Dupuis said they were disgusted by the final report.
"There's no accountability," Dupuis said.
Sun Country CEO Marga Cugnet said through an a emailed statement that SCHR is bound by privacy laws to protect the privacy of their residents and staff.
"As such, we were required to block out names and any other identifying characteristics in the third party report we released to the family," Cugnet said. "Those were the only parts of the report redacted. We explained this to the family when we sent them the report."
Cugnet added they cannot discuss the family's specific concerns in a public forum as they are required to protect their privacy at all times.
In the same article, Dupuis said there is a lack of communication with Sun Country management. She also raised concerns about ongoing issues such as not properly charting incidents.
To deal with these types of concerns, Cugnet said they are creating resident councils in all of their long term care facilities.
"We understand the family's frustration. We regret they felt their concerns were not heard or understood," Cugnet said. "We are committed to following best practices in charting for all of our residents and to respond to concerns promptly."
Cugnet closed by noting their top priority is to provide quality care and are working at ERNH to enhance the working environment to ensure a safe and enjoyable place for residents to live and staff members to work.
