Interior Health Investigating the Death of a Patient at Care Facility

Interior Health, RCMP and the BC Coroner are investigating the death of a dementia patient at a care facility in Salmon Arm.

An elderly patient is dead following an altercation with another patient at the multi-level care facility Bastion Place.

“I can confirm that there was an altercation between two residents that occurred in the early morning of October 3^rd at Bastion Place,” said Karen Bloemink, Executive Director of Residential Services at Interior Health. “The staff responded quickly and appropriately to the incident to ensure the safety of the residents. Unfortunately four days following that altercation one of those residents did pass away.”

Bastion Place in Salmon Arm (Photo Credit: Google Maps)

Bloemink says Interior Health isn’t suggesting that the altercation resulted in the death of the 93 year old patient; the cause of his death is being investigated and will be determined by the regional coroner’s office. Concerns have been raised by the BC Nurses Union that the facility does not have adequate staffing levels, and Bloemink addresses those concerns.

“We’re well aware of the staffing on this unit and in this facility, Interior Health has a standardized staffing and care delivery model for all of our care facilities across the Health Authority,” she adds. “What we do is with that staffing model is it provides us with our baseline level of staff. Based on the level of context, depending on how many residents we have in that care delivery environment, what their condition is and whether or not we have challenges related to their condition we adjust that staffing model.”

Interior Health is always looking at the staffing model says Bloemink and the Health Authority is investigating to see if the incident is related to staffing or other factors. This isn’t the first time Bastion Place has been at the centre of controversy as a high profile incident took place there in 2007. There was an investigation into a brutal assault on an elderly patient with low staffing levels blamed for the cause.

“The Health Authority has progressed according to those recommendations (from the investigation) to the present day and our work around the challenges around the dementia population continues,” explains Bloemink.

The victim’s name has not been released by authorities pending notification of next of kin.