Company Announcements

3 facilities win the ‘1 000 Smiles’ Award

PUTEAUX, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 26, 2021-- Regulatory News:

The ORPEA Group (Paris:ORP), one of the world’s largest players in long-term care (nursing homes, post-acute and rehabilitation hospitals, psychiatric hospitals and home care services), is pleased to announce the winners of the sixth ORPEA Excellence Awards and the “1 000 Smiles” award, which pay tribute to novel initiatives implemented in its European facilities in 2020.

On Tuesday, 26 January 2021, the ORPEA Group'sInternational Scientific & Ethics Council (ISEC) presented the 2020ORPEA Excellence Awards, which every year pay tribute to the teams that have submitted the best projects in the categories “Research”, “Clinical Ethics” and “Innovation in Care”.

For 2020, teams in 8 countries¹ submitted a total of 27 ground-breaking projects for consideration. This impressive participation testifies to the culture of innovation and research that drives the Group’s teams to enhance residents’ and patients’ dignity and well-being as the world confronts a health crisis like no other.

Speaking about these awards, Yves Le Masne, Chief Executive Officer of ORPEA, said:
“Despite experiencing an unprecedented global pandemic that touched every aspect of our lives in 2020, all our employees stepped up and showed extraordinary commitment and dedication. This sixth edition of the ORPEA Excellence Awards once again demonstrates how our facilities and their staff are continually able to innovate and develop forward-looking services to benefit residents and patients.
I want to give a big thank you to the teams for the fantastic projects they implemented as part of the ‘1000 Smiles’ initiative, which boosts residents’, patients’, families’ and employees’ well-being and happiness.”

The awards went to the following projects:

– “Research” category: Flavien Quijoux for POSTADYCHUTE
This predictive tool assesses the risk of falling for an elderly person placed in an institution. This doctoral dissertation in neuroscience, backed by ORPEA France’s medical department, in collaboration with the Centre Borelli (UMR9010, CNRS, INSERM, French Defence Health Service), analyses static equilibrium to identify predictive markers of the elderly person’s risk of falling. It will be continued with the creation of groups engaging in physical activities tailored to the abilities of the selected residents, for whom the benefits will be confirmed by analysing posture and gait.

- “Clinical Ethics” category: Haus-Edelberg Kernen (Germany) Nursing Home for its intercultural workshop on death and end of life “Giving days more live-culture”
Starting from a detailed analysis of the resident’s needs and expectations, this workshop develops a resident-centred approach that is preventive and multi-disciplinary, and empowers the resident.

- “Innovation in Care” category: Château d’Herblay Hospital (CLINEA SSR France) for its PREVaction programme, a comprehensive strategy of health education and prevention.
The PREVaction programme, which is delivered in this outpatient hospital to people aged 75 and up, is meant to be utilised before patients lose autonomy so they can gain the tools to take charge of their health and preserve their remaining abilities.

- Because so many excellent projects were submitted, the jury also gave two honourable mentions in the “Innovation in Care” category:

• Home chemotherapy treatment, supported by the teams of Allerzorg Home Care in Woerden, the Netherlands. This programme aims to improve quality of life for the very elderly or people with reduced mobility by offering them home chemotherapy care so they do not need to travel to a hospital.

• “EM Table©”, passive horizontal stimulation for quality of life for people with reduced mobility, a project backed by the Spanish teams of the ORPEA Mirasierra rehabilitation facility in Madrid. This device recreates the effects produced by physical activity by inducing passive movements on a horizontal plane. The nitrogen oxide that is produced improves bio-mechanical properties, muscle tone and tissue oxygenation (­PaO2, ¯PaCO2) in patients aged 26 to 65.

This year, ISEC is adding a new element: international workshops designed to speed up the implementation of these innovations across the Group while encouraging the sharing of experience and best practices. These workshops will bring together each team of winners and the ISEC members, who will model approaches and protocols for a successful implementation.

ISEC was created in 2015 to give the Group an opportunity to further study the ethical aspects of care practises, and it studies the medical ethics issues faced by the Group’s care and senior management teams.

“1000 Smiles” award

The “1000 Smiles” awards were also announced during this ceremony. These awards, which were specially created by the ORPEA Group in 2020, recognise creative initiatives implemented in its European facilities to amuse, energise and lift the spirits of residents, patients and employees throughout this trying year.

Teams from 10 countries² submitted a total of 69 applications. A jury of seven employees from different Group business lines chose the winners based on their originality, impact criteria, ease of being reproduced and additional effort required for implementation.

After evaluating the excellent and varied initiatives that were submitted, the jury announced three awards:

Loreto Nursing Home, Spain (Madrid), for its “tableau vivant” project: nursing home residents chose paintings they wanted to re-enact – the project involved selecting the artworks, creating props, and choosing scenery, poses and shots. This was a comprehensive project that lasted several weeks. All the residents and employees got excited about it, and the final result was superb.

Koala Nursing Home , Belgium (Deurne), for construction forklifts placed in front of the nursing home so families could see their loved ones who were confined to their rooms during the first lockdown. The project led to poignant reunions between residents and their families.

Senecura Villach, Austria, for its intergenerational “1000 drawings, 1000 smiles” project. During the first wave of the lockdown, the children and families living near the nursing home were asked to post letters and drawings on social media for elderly people, who then responded with video messages. The project created valuable intergenerational connections.

About ISEC:

ISEC, the ORPEA Group’s International Scientific & Ethics Council, is chaired by Prof Joël Belmin, a professor at Sorbonne University and head of the geriatrics ward for cardiovascular and neuro-cognitive issues at the Pitié Salpêtrière Charles Foix Hospital Group.
He is assisted by Dr Linda Benattar, the Group’s International Medical Director and elected Vice Chairwoman of ISEC; a coordinating physician, international medical expert Dr Jean-Louis Bussière; and a secretary, Philippe Zawieja PhD, a visiting researcher at the Universities of Sherbrooke, Strasbourg and Paris.

ISEC has 28 members who are professors of medicine, practitioners, and Group medical directors and operations managers.

The team led by Prof Joël Belmin is focussed on developing ISEC based on a solid foundation of scholarship and international teaching that supports the Group’s ethical approach to research and innovation. This academic, international and independent council ensures that the Group’s work meets the highest ethical and scientific standards.

About ORPEA (www.orpea-corp.com)

Founded in 1989, ORPEA is one of the major world leaders in long-term care for people in poor health, with a network of 1,028 facilities comprising 105,443 beds (21,137 of which are under construction) across 22 countries, which are divided into five geographical regions:

- France Benelux: 523 facilities/46,277 beds (of which 4,957 are under construction)
- Central Europe: 249 facilities/26,491 beds (of which 4,885 are under construction)
- Eastern Europe: 136 facilities/14,621 beds (of which 3,647 are under construction)
- Iberian Peninsula/Latin America: 119 facilities/17,914 beds (of which 7,648 are under construction)
- Rest of the world: 1 facility / 140 beds

¹ Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain
²Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland

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Source: ORPEA