Northampton County Council member Mike Dowd last night proposed the creation of a committee to study how Gracedale stacks up against other county nursing homes, as well as privately owned facilities. "We want to be sure that the residents are taken care of in the best possible way, we want to be sure that we're doing it in the most efficient way." But no sooner has Dowd made his proposal than he ran into a firestorm of protest from fellow Council members. He eventually withdrew his request after Executive John Stoffa told Council that the Administration will be conducting its own study.I've excerpted the rearks of some Council members.
Lamont McClure: "I couldn't oppose this more. I don't think it's necessary to study this issue. I think it's a fundamental, moral obligation of this County to continue to run Gracedale and provide the high level of care that we provide. ... I'll never vote to close Gracedale. I'll never vote to sell it."
Ann McHale: "Well, if you're in a minority then so am I because I couldn't agree with you more."
Ron Angle: "He's not suggesting closing it He wants to know are we giving the best level of care that we can for the people there compared to other people in the business. That's part of what we want to do. This soapbox of oh we don't want to close it, he's not suggesting closing it. He wants to know how it's running and can we do it better."
John Stoffa: "Thirty-four counties have a nursing home, thirty-three do not."
Peg Ferraro: "I could never vote for this and I don;t think any of us could ever vote for privatizing until you've spent time in some of those privatized nursing homes in all of those counties that have now gone private. Use your nose when you walk in."
McHale: "Exactly, the stench is enough to make you vomit."
25 comments:
Angle and Stoffa have wanted to sell Gracedale for years. Dowd just goes with the breeze. I am glad the other members of Council that are true servants of the people and not in favor of throwing the old and infirm in the streets.
No matter what is decided, nobody wll be throwing anyone on the streets. Save that scare tactic for the election cycle.
Emotion over common sense.
I work in health care. People are thrown on the street all the time. Thank de-regulation for one more out-of-control industry. There's nothing in the profit-driven model that cares one whit for the old and the infirm-unless it's our Medicare tax dollars. Gracedale will close eventually. Let's just hope it's not before a re-engineered health care system can pick up the slack.
There will always be business people who will take the SSI and Medicare to house the aged. The question is..what level of care will they get? My wife is a nurses aide at Gracedale and she works HARD..everyday God bless her and part of the reason she cares for her ladies is that she saw the level of care her own Mother got at facilities not up to Gracedales quality. Yes it is a union gig but if you had to do what she does every day..you..the tax payers..are getting more than your monies worth. Ask the residents and you will see that they appreciate the staff and the extra care they get over and above the average corporate nursing home who pays their staff poverty level wages and benefits if any. This is a no brainer.
There is an old adage that you can tell a lot about a society by how it treats the weakest (the children and elderly).
We elect people to make tough decisions. God knows who will bear the burden of the next round of budget cuts.
Since when has this administration conducted its own anything? They hire consultants and form committees for all decisions that have to be made. They can't make a decision on their own. But more importantly they can blame the outside agency they hired as a consultant when things go bad.
Yes sir, Chris. I am all for taking care of both groups, including the ones that end up in the garbage after murderous mothers and doctors carve em up in the name of reproductive rights.
There is one more group that you need to add to the weakest. A measure of a society is not only how it treats its weakest in respect to children and elderly, but also how it treats its prisoners. These people should also be catergorized into the classification of weakest members of our society.
Education and care of the prisoners are also factors that are trying to be addressed in Stoffa's administration.
These things demonstrate how lucky we are to have such civil figures as our watchdogs.
Peace, ~~Alex
"Exactly, the stench is enough to make you vomit."
I say that every time I walk into County Council chambers.
It's not just about health care concerning Gracedale. It was originally the county Poor House/Farm. A lot of current residents are indigent and had nothing but the clothes on their backs when they arrive. Some are thrown away by their kids or they are alzheimer sufferers and mental cases. Where will I go when I and my family run out of options cause we aren't independently wealthy?
Stoffa and Angle don't care, throw them in the streets. Ohare and the other haters will help.
John Cusick and Mike Dowd have already said they intend to vote for to sell Gracedale. Angle will join them. Ferarro, McHale and Mclure will be against. The vote to sell Gracedale will be 6-3 ir 5-4.
It's very clear that McClure & Ferraro have both siad they oppose selling Gracedale, pretty much no matter what. McHale is almost, but not quite, as strong as them.
Cusick, Angle and Dowd support looking at it more closelt, but may decide not to sell at all. No one will sell Gracedale unless there is absolute certainty that every indigent person will seem the same quality of care being provided at Gracedale.
I have absolutely no idea how the new members of Council will feel about this.
The claim that the decision has already been made is sheer nonsense.
Will a private Company gaurantee to accept indigint and medicaid for eternity.
Simple answer is , NO. Stoffa and Angle know that but they are playing a game with peoples lives.
Wow not a lot of MENSA going on there - Egads
Hey Donald Ducky, MENSA this! If you are on this thread, you have nothing to do with MENSA.
If it weren't for global warning, we'd still have icebergs to put these folks on and send out to sea...no more taxes! Mama wants an inground pool!
Gracedales biggest problem is the overtime it spends on supervisory staff and administration. For hours they sit in an office and get paid triple what the real employees who take care of residents day to day get paid. Ask them when the last time they visited a floor and talked to a resident about the care they recieve or spoke with a staff member on ways they can improve care. Bet they couldn't tell you they don't even know half of the employees names that work there or been there for years. Selling the facility is not the answer and hiring another consultant to review the spending practices is not the answer the last one they had cost the county alot of money and no improvements were made.Speak to the residents it is there home there are many ways to improve the facitlity without selling it don't let goverment decide let the people who live there decide.
I see. It is top heavy. Of course, these are probably your supervisors, aren't they?
Yeah, it is top heavy & what supervisors?...Rarely see any. If you do call with concern you are basically spoken to like you are a child. The Hands ON Employees...not the Administration have been running Gracedale for years and now all of a sudden we created all these new positions and commitees and you see less Supervision...just lots of emails and policies handed out. There are ways to cut costs. Lets start at the top and work our way to the bottom. Those of us that have been there for years have busted our butts for the Good Reputation Gracedale has. We have cared for our Residents with Love, Empathy and Compassion...for many of us it is an extentsion of who we are. There were many new positions created in the Administrative Section and positions deleted in the hands on section. As far as the commitees and outside analyst what do they have vested...talk to the hands on employees who spend the majority of their day there. We care about the Care, Costs, Waste, Taxes etc...it all trickles down to us eventually. I have yet to see the County Executive visit a Nursing Unit or Employee. Maybe someone should question the Advisor that was brought in at Gracedale about a year ago and was suppose to only be there for a few months earning a High Salary...he is "Still" around. Hurt the little guy while the big guy reaps the harvest...isn't that what got our country in the mess its in?
Agree. There was a study done and they started to save money but the Gracedale bosses and Stoffa didn't like it so they went back to the old way of costing money. Why spend thousands to do another study when the last one was discontinued.
I have yet to see Stoffa or Marcus, who are these people anyway.
There was no previous study. That's some of the typical disinformation being posted anonymously by Bob Daday, who got caught trying to stick the county with unemployment benefits. he now hates Stoffa and takes every opportunity to trash him. It's personal. he does not give a damn about Gracedale. he just wants to trash Stoffa.
Gracedale County Nursing home has provided care for a loved one for years. There is no place that gives better patient care than Gracedale. I do not work there nor do any family members. I speak from a healthcare worker's perspective. I have been in many area nursing homes and they can't even begin to compare to Gracedale. It staff is excellent, the care they provide to their residents is excellent and they are a very well organized Nursing home. The patients are the top priority . Northampton County has something to be proud of in Gracedale. Why ruin a good thing and hurt many in the process?
A study was done around 2003. It was instituted saved money and also got Gracedale making some money but it was thrown out when Stoffa was elected.
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