Flawed rollout of home-care delivery system in Manitoba

WINNIPEG – Manitoba’s health minister is apologizing for the troubled rollout of a new system meant to centralize scheduling for home-care workers in Winnipeg that led to cancellations and delays in service.

Workers will be assigned to specific geographical areas this month, a return to the way things were before the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) implemented the new system earlier this year.

Health minister Uzoma Asagwara (pictured) said the transition “did not go the way it should have.”

“Too many families saw disruptions that caused frustrations and uncertainty, and for that I sincerely apologize,” the minister said. “We’ve taken steps to correct those problems.”

The centralized system was implemented with the goal addressing gaps in service and short-staffing by moving all scheduling into a single site from three different locations. But workers and clients say it made service less reliable, with visits being delayed or cancelled.

One nurse told CBC News there have been instances where nurses have been on their way to a client’s home when the scheduled visit disappears from their phone app, and they don’t know why.

“The problem is that when we see all the names of all these people we’re supposed to provide care for, and when they start being removed from our app, we know that they’re not going to get that care that day,” the nurse said.

Efforts to remedy the situation have centred around improving the centralized scheduling system, bringing in more expertise and hiring more health-care workers and scheduling clerks, the health minister said.

“I know that change can always be difficult, but what we’ve also seen is that there are opportunities here to improve this centralized rollout and improve these services overall,” Asagwara said.

The province said staff will still work out of one central office but will be split based on area of expertise and geography, rather than being part of a single pool of workers.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 204 – which represents healthcare aides and scheduling clerks – previously said the system prevented workers from maintaining routines, affecting the continuity of care for clients.

The province said scheduling clerk shifts will change to make service more predictable and improve coverage, adding there have also been changes to the call systems to make communications between aides and clients easier, it said.

“The changes that we’re making are necessary,” Asagwara said. “These are concerns that have been raised for years but were not listened to previously. We are a listening government. We take that very seriously.”

The province said it has added 230 net home-care aides since fall 2023. Thirty-two scheduling clerks have also been hired since July, it said.

Asagwara said the government still has a lot of work to do to recruit more people.