Last week, NorCo Executive Lamont McClure placed the blame for a negative health inspection at Gracedale on Premier Healthcare Services. That's who was managing the county nursing home when state officials arrived. Is McClure right or is he just scapegoating Premier? Based on what has happened in Westmoreland County, he appears to be correct.
Premier was hired to manage Gracedale in 2011. It manages numerous nursing homes. At the time this private manager was hired, the nursing home was losing $5.9 million a year, and going in the wrong direction. Premier worked on increasing the census while improving the quality of care. It paid off. Gracedale went for two years without a single deficiency during state inspections. But that all changed with the departure of D.Millard Freeman, who had been Premier's point man.
Two years ago, the ratings at the nursing home tumbled after a suicidal resident was left alone. The most recent inspection resulted in 11 deficiencies among a small sample of residents. They ranged from keeping residents in restraints to improper feeding. By this time, Executive McClure had already decided to replace Premier with an in-house administrator. He nevertheless faulted himself for failing to act sooner.
Premier is also the manager at Westmoreland Manor, a county nursing home in the western part of the state. It is a 408-bed facility. It was hired in 2016 after there were dozens of deficiencies in a state survey. A negative state inspection in September has resulted in the replacement of Premier's administrator, but Premier itself is still managing the county home.
Westmoreland Manor is rated by Medicare as a "one star" home, meaning it is "much below average." Gracedale has a "two star" rating, meaning it is "below average." Cedarbrook, Lehigh County's home, has a "five star" rating, meaning "much above average."
15 comments:
Do what Cedarbrook is doing. The may find they will have to spend money to run the home. Did anyone think of that.
The former Cedar Brook DON was hired by the Brown administration and immediately fired when McClure came into office without cause. She got Cedar Brook to that 5 star rating and had also been a state health inspector so she was very knowledgeable. But politics prevailed and no one cared about what was best for the nursing home. Maybe they’d be in a better position today had they not done that...
Maybe if Gracedale cherry picked its residents as do other places...
Finally getting somewhere here. Gracedale “did” do well under Premier with Freeman in charge. The “Cedarbrook DON” was very knowledgeable but she was tough and had expectations that were frowned upon. “Firing” her was a disgrace and truly a big mistake. Inexperienced management plays a huge role in this mess now. I’m hoping Mr. McClure understands that now. Also the program to train LPNs to be RNs is not new but it is very competitive and takes up to 3 years to complete so it is not a “fix” for the immediate shortage of RN personnel.
6:34 and 7:40 have hit the nail on the head. This story has gone totally unreported by the media and this blog. In order to appease certain employees, McClure fired the former Cedarbrook DON right after he was sworn into office. It took 7 months to hire a replacement who was less qualified. Now he blames Premier? They didn't fire her, he did.
McClure sure has shown what a poor manager looks like. It takes 7 months to hire a replacement after you let her go? Meanwhile the "most vulnerable" are left in the most horrific conditions. Sell this hell hole to an entity that knows what its doing. If we really care about out elderly then drop the for sale sign in the yard. Amazing how we don't hear from those union people from gracedale booing now about how abused they are with wages and that sucky county job right? McClure should not sleep at night knowing the conditions that these people are living in. Perhaps instead of bragging about the generators our lights are on know and we all know what a fake, fraud and phony McClure is.
AT the Cumminity College to get from LPN to RN is a 2 year progman
Union loyalties trump Gracedale residents' concerns in McClures world. The DON was tough. Union didn't like her. That's all McClure needed to hear. He sacked her. He put his cronies before the elderly and nobody should be the least bit surprised. Elections have consequences and anyone could have seen this coming. Instead of owning his mistake. He blames the last guy. That's what weaselly lawyers do. And we elected a weaselly lawyer.
So is McClure to blame or the efforts to weaken and dump Gracedale?
The DON was run out in Lehigh County. She had nothing to do w/ the 5 star rating. She barely found her office before running off to Norco.
No one should take a swipe at that DON without knowing her, her education, her work history and her work ethic. I suspect this lack of knowledge from the last comment before this one.
the ugly truth on Bernie ohare
The problems at Gracedale need to be fixed.
It does not take much to drop in ratings.
When you look into how the ratings are scored you can compare the differences between five star and two star,
For example the more residents on psychotropic drugs the worse your score becomes.
Gracedale has 21 percent on these drugs your five star has 16 percent-so the scoring works against a facility that has more people on these drugs than a facility that has less folks on those drugs.
If you look at staffing Gracedale has the average amount of staffing whereas the five star has above average staffing.
So the easiest way to get a five star rating is to have high staff levels.
That high level of staffing can outweigh faults in resident care or fire safety.
So hiring more nursing care is the quickest way to get a better rating.
The important part is the level of care the resident's receive.
Cedarbrook's DON is tough and runs a tight ship but their staffing is better and so are their wages. Given a choice, healthcare workers will work for Lehigh County rather than Northampton County any day, and it shows. It's a sad fact of life for many job categories but this is one area where it is glaring. Cedarbrook workers make more across the board and better staffing means better ratios and increased patient safety.
24 years at Lehigh county
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