St. Patrick’s Home: 25 Years of Person-Centred Care

Overview

St. Patrick's Home of Ottawa is a Catholic long-term care facility providing assisted living & respite care for close to 300 residents.

Affectionately known as St. Pat’s, the home has history on its side. Founded in 1865, the long-term care home was originally run by the Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. Its longevity is a testament to its culture of care and the values it embodies; in fact, St. Patrick’s Home is the first choice for many residents waiting for long-term care placement. 

Connect to learn how Sodexo’s engaged team can move your care community forward!
 

The Resident Dining Experience 

A large part of the quality of life in a senior care community revolves around the dining experience. St. Patrick’s Home has partnered with Sodexo for the resident culinary experience for 25 years.

At St. Patrick’s Home, the nutritional services team works closely with the Residents' Council to understand the needs of the residents. The menu evolves thanks to the feedback they receive, either from the Council or the yearly Quality of Life survey. Here are just some of the programs that have been developed throughout the years:

• Chef du Jour: Every day, during mealtimes, our team of chefs and supervisors tour the different dining rooms and listen to what the residents have to say about their meals and experiences. This unique interaction creates a bond that empowers the residents to give their feedback directly to the team.
• À la carte menu: In addition to the fixed menu rotation, a small à la carte menu was introduced to add variety for the residents. The six-item menu was put together after consultation with the Residents Council. Staples such as hamburgers and spaghetti are available for order at the point of service during dining hours.
• Special events and meals: On occasion and in collaboration with the recreational department, the general manager, Paul, who happens to be a chef, personally prepares themed meals and special upscale dinners for the residents and two of their family members. Meals such as roast beef and stuffed whole chicken are plated and served by employees in their full black and white attire. 
• Catering services: In addition to the daily nutritional services, our team provides catering services for management, staff appreciation events, the Board of Directors, and the residents alike. The home has a multipurpose room that can hold up to 120 people and hold events such as annual service awards and private dinners for the residents and their families. The team even catered a wedding for 150 people off-site for a resident’s family member. The event included a prime rib dinner and an ice cream bar.

What started as a nutritional and clinical nutrition services contract evolved into a full spectrum of support services, including housekeeping, laundry and building operations.  

St. Patrick’s Home by the Numbers
- 288 residents
- 10 full-time Sodexo team members
- 140 St-Pat's employees

Designing a New Building for Operational Excellence

In 2011, St. Patrick’s Home received funding to design and construct a new building to serve the existing residents as well as expand capacity to serve an additional 80 residents. It takes a qualified team of experts to build or redevelop a care community. As St. Patrick’s Home embarked on this journey, they recognized the valuable input their operational partners could provide throughout the design process, to ensure that the new building included innovations and well thought-out flow to ensure operational excellence, risk mitigation, and cost-effectiveness. Because operational excellence ensures a high standard of care for their beloved residents. 

Leveraging the long-standing partnership with Sodexo, St. Patrick’s Home engaged its team of experts from the beginning. They leaned on their culinary and environmental services expertise to design a building aligned with their shared values around person-centred care.

The Sodexo team was involved from the inception of the new building plan and participated in the focus group established to inform and support the new build. Sodexo’s experience with various contractors was essential in designing the kitchen space for the type of delivery model and service required. This enabled St. Patrick’s Home to plan for and implement the following innovations:

• Upgrading to rationale ovens: This combination oven, which uses heat and steam, is more efficient and cost-effective than a convection oven — while the average roast cooked conventionally shrinks up to 30%, using a rationale oven reduces shrinkage to less than 10%. 
  A rationale oven has the capacity to cook eight whole turkeys overnight. With its 50-plate insert, it is also possible to pre-plate and reheat 50 meals ahead of time in a matter of minutes.
• Customizing walk-in refrigerator doors: Pallet-width doors were built to accommodate cold inventory delivery outside of staff hours. This solution mitigated risks and costs by reducing labour needs, as well as health and safety concerns — by delivering the pallets directly to refrigerators, the cold chains remain undisrupted.
• Various housekeeping innovations: To support the wellness of team members, a more ergonomic Rubbermaid system of microfiber mops was implemented. Through a partnership with Ecolab, consolidated hand soap was also introduced. This solution uses less packaging and reduces the impact on the environment.
   

Safety First. Always.
The move from the old building to the new building occurred on December 31, with temperatures reaching -40 degrees. A covered passage was built between both buildings to safely transfer all residents, avoiding health concerns and risks such as slips, trips and falls.

The Community is Growing 

Planning is in the works to develop a new affordable and supportive seniors housing building that will serve as an option between retirement and long-term care.  

Although there is no finalized plan, the development of this project continues.  It will include up to 133 beds that are a combination of one- and two-bedroom apartments and urban cottages, which include 10 studio apartments, with a communal area for meals and a shared living room and kitchen area, creating a home-like environment. Residents who need it will have personal support workers (PSW), and St. Patrick’s Home has already chosen to partner with Sodexo for this project's food and facilities management.