Ottawa Hospital taking over resident care at 2 nursing homes

The Ottawa Hospital will take over care of residents at twoOttawalong-term care homes with serious COVID-19 outbreaks, the province announced Friday.

The Ministry of Long-term Care said the "voluntary arrangements" between the hospital andExtendicare, which operates West End Villa and LaurierManor, will help the homes address and containCOVID-19 within those facilities.

West End Villa is experiencing the most severe outbreak seen in a facility in the city in recent months, with 87 cases and11 deaths, according to the latest Ottawa Public Health (OPH) numbers.

Laurier Manor, which had an outbreak earlier this spring that saw 103 cases and 25 deaths among its residents,is experiencing another outbreak with 19 cases of COVID-19 this September,according toOPH. No deaths have been reported there so far.

The new agreement means that The Ottawa Hospital will take over managingresident care in both homes.

"I am confident that the dedicated staff at The Ottawa Hospital will work together with [the facilities] ...and contain these COVID-19 outbreaks," said Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton in the news release.

Extendicare 'grateful' for help

"We deeply appreciate their support," wrote Extendicareregional director Cory Nezan in an email to CBC News.

Nezan said similar partnerships were "extremely" helpful for other Extendicare facilities during the first wave. The company runs long-term care homes inOntario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

"We are grateful forany and all help that can be provided to keep our people safe and help us make sure our residents receive the quality of care that they and their families expect," wrote Nezan.

This type of managementcontract is one of the measures the province says it's implementing on behalf of residents and staff at long-term care homes. Other measures include staffing support, more testing and emergency funding.

The ministry says it will continue to make decisions on which facilities will need more support through such contracts with hospitals on a case-by-case basis.