Statement Regarding our Ongoing Investigation into Orchard Villa Retirement Residence

We are attaching a copy of our Amended Statement of Claim which adds Extendicare (Canada) Inc. as a party defendant.  Extendicare (Canada) Inc. began managing Orchard Villa starting January 25, 2015. 

Gary Will, who is lead counsel on the case and is Managing Partner of Will Davidson LLP, confirmed that the Amended Statement of Claim was issued on June 23, 2020 naming Extendicare (Canada) Inc. as a co-defendant. 

According to Mr. Will:

“In 2013, the US Department of Justice prosecuted Extendicare under the False Claims Act.  According to the US Department of Justice, Extendicare’s violations included billing both Medicare and Medicade for materially substandard nursing; failure to meet Federal and State standards; and failure to provide enough skilled nurses for patients requiring their services.”

“To settle the suits, in October 2014 Extendicare agreed to pay $38,000,000.00 to the Federal government and eight US states. This was the largest failure of care settlement in the US Justice Department’s history. 

As a further term of the agreement, Extendicare also had to enter a chain-wide five year corporate integrity agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services. 

“On November 7, 2014, Extendicare announced the sale of its American portfolio of senior care communities for $870,000,000.00.  It did this with a view to growing and expanding its business in Canada.”

“A few months later the defendant Southbridge Healthcare Inc. announced that they had hired Extendicare who they described as a recognized leader in quality clinically based services to work at Orchard Villa.”

“From 2015 onwards, residents and family members of residents at Orchard Villa noticed a significant decline in the level of services.  Orchard Villa was investigated by the Ministry of Long Term Care on nineteen occasions from 2017 to 2019 in response to specific complaints concerning serious deficiencies in the level of care at Orchard Villa.  The Ministry spent over 43 days at Orchard Villa investigating the complaints.  The Ministry issued 65 written warnings, 32 voluntary plans of correction, 13 compliance orders and referred 3 matters to the Director.” 

According to Mr. Will:

“What due diligence did Southbridge Care Home Inc. perform before hiring a company like Extendicare to manage the home at Orchard Villa.  Extendicare was prosecuted by the US Department of Justice for materially substandard nursing services that were so deficient that they were effectively worthless.  Extendicare then pays one of the largest failure of care settlement in US Justice Department history in October 2014 and within three months they are operating Orchard Villa.  Yet Southbridge Care Home Inc. describes Extendicare as a recognized leader in quality clinically based services.”

“After mismanaging Orchard Villa for many years leading up to the outbreak of Covid-19, when Covid-19 hit both the owners and managers of Orchard Villa were woefully unprepared to dealing with the crisis.  Orchard Villa has the very highest death rate in a long term care facility in Ontario with 85 deaths and a total of 269 infections.  This home was grossly mismanaged.  Extendicare and Southbridge need to take responsibility for what they have created.  These companies must be held to account and there must be justice for the residents and their families.”

The Representative Plaintiff, Sylvia Lyon had the following statement:

“I noticed care at Orchard Villa started to decline in 2015 after Southbridge took over and contracted Extendicare to manage the health care side of their operations.  But until now, I had no idea that Extendicare had been sued in the US for not providing proper care to American residents.  So why in the world would Southbridge hire Extendicare after they paid the largest fine in US history’’

The updated Statement of Claim can be found here.

Anyone that has any information about this case or is a resident or family member of a resident can contact Gary Will at gwill@willdavidson.ca (905-815-5802) or Michael Reid at mreid@willdavidson.ca (905-337-9748) for a free consultation. 

Image of Orchard Villa courtesy of Google Maps Images.