Leisureworld Vaughan Receives Top Honours for New Blood Testing Method that Enhances Care and Lives of Residents

MARKHAM, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 24, 2013) - A new blood-testing method that enhances the care and lives of residents has earned Leisureworld Vaughan top honours from the Ontario Long-term Care Association (OLTCA) and LTC & Senior Living LINK. Leisureworld (TSX:LW) staff members accepted a Quality Improvement Innovation of the Year award from the OLTCA in April and will be accepting a LTC LINK Spirit of Innovation award at the annual LINK Conference in July. Both awards recognize companies for their innovation, dedication to continuous improvement, development of best practices, and commitment to the success of the long term care industry.

In 2012, Leisureworld Vaughan piloted Point of Care (POC) INR testing on 11 residents receiving anti-coagulant, or blood thinning, therapy to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke and/or blood clots. A team of staff from the Vaughan long-term care home and Resident Services team plus partners from Triverity Healthcare Solutions and Roche Pharmaceuticals developed an in-house testing process, with the home's registered staff using a portable POC INR metre, test strips and lancet to take a blood droplet from a resident's finger to assess levels of the drug warfarin in the blood. The process replaced the weekly drawing of blood through the vein and testing done by a third-party laboratory, which is the standard used by Ontario long-term care homes. Upon completion of the pilot, many benefits were revealed, including drastically faster turnaround times for the doctor to give medication orders and new dosages. As a result of this pilot, Leisureworld will be rolling out POC INR testing to all of its long-term care homes in the months ahead.

Marianne Klein, Director of Administration at Leisureworld Vaughan, believes the OLTCA and LINK awards are the result of collaboration amongst many stakeholders and Leisureworld's commitment to quality. "We feel really proud to be part of an organization and a team that is so focused on improving the quality of life of our residents," says Klein.

Klein goes on to say that significant savings in staff time and costs were also achieved. "Our home achieved a cost savings of $9,800 in lab costs. If we applied this to all of our Leisureworld long-term care homes, this would equate to approximately $190,000 in savings. In addition, the average 272 minutes our staff needed to complete the lab-based process was reduced to 111 minutes under the new POC INR testing, saving our home 139.5 hours a year - hours that can be redirected back to resident care. Most importantly, the new method had the greatest, positive impact on residents, who appreciate the less invasive lancing of the finger by our staff than the drawing of blood through a vein by a lab representative," Klein notes.

About Leisureworld Senior Care Corporation

Leisureworld Senior Care Corporation is Canada's fifth largest operator of seniors' housing and the third largest long-term care (LTC) provider in Ontario. The Company owns and operates 27 long-term care homes across Ontario and five retirement residences and one independent living home in Ontario and British Columbia. Headquartered in Markham, Ontario, Leisureworld has been providing compassionate care, accommodation and services to Canadian seniors since 1972.

Leisureworld Senior Care Corporation
Lisa Egan
Vice President, Communications
(905) 477-4006 Ext. 2112