A procession of nurses made Northampton County Council that they are very unhappy with the constant staffing shortages at Gracedale. They were led by Local 2599 United Steelworkers President Jerry Greene, who represents a bargaining unit consisting of RNs and social workers at the county's home. "The talks haven't been going that well,"said Greene. While agreeing that Executive Lamont McClure "inherited a mess from the last administration," he said that the facility is understaffed and employees there are underpaid.
Valerie Mikula, a RN employed at Gracedale since 2001, said that she sees the home's mission as providing the highest level of care for the Gracedale residents without causing a hardship to the taxpayers. "Why are we making $5.5 million profit?" she asked.
She indicated there are currently 18 full-time RNs, with 36 full-time RN vacancies. The home is also down 88 aides, she asserted. She added that multiple floors have no RNs, and the work is done by LPNs.
Mikula's comments were echoed by an LPN, who complained she is now alone on a floor with 32 residents. She complained that when a resident falls, he or she must often remain there for as long as 30 minutes until an RN can be located to assess the situation. She said hat's because they are often on the floor, dispensing medications because no one else is there to do it.
Another LPN (Tonya Dominico sp?) said morale is at an all-time low. It's "kind of horrifying," she said. She complained she works 62 hours per week and still gets called.
"The morale stinks!" said CNA Julie Stout. She said the constant overtime has workers at each others' throats. She herself has just finished nine days in a row of extra shifts. She added that the lack of manpower contributes to falls and bedsores.
Candida Fairchild, employed at the home since 1995, said she's unsure she'll stay She gets alerts asking her to work overtime every day. "It's exhausting," she complained. "I hit and killed a woman getting to work."
"I wish we could pay them more money," responded Executive McClure. "But we have 1100 employees who agreed to the pattern." His pattern is a 4 1/2 per cent raise in the first year, followed by two per cent raises in years two and three. He also eliminated co-insurance and gap insurance, which puts more money into the pocket of the worker.
Some nurses suggested 12-hour shifts and signing bonuses. McClure said he is open yo both ideas but they were rejected by the union.
In the meantime, Gracedale's Medicare rating remains at two stars, or "below average."
37 comments:
This is terrible. The county administration needs to stop bragging about all they do for everyone and fix this problem. McClure has to realize that Gracedale must be treated differently than others. It is a full scale 24/7 facility that has lives at stake. Sounds like some ego is involved. Better pay more attention to this than creating jobs fro political cronies.
Council better investigate this situation before there is a tragedy.
If I didn’t know ahead of time that you were talking about Gracedale, I would think you were talking about the Prison! It’s unfortunate that they seem to have similar problems.
It is disappointing to hear that this far into the McClure/Dertinger administration that we still have such issues as you've been reporting at Gracedale. I expected better voting D after the Brown tenure.
One FOR SALE sign in the front yard is long overdue! Sell this side show horrors!
Bernie, you would make an awesome Candy Striper (probably not the first time you wore a dress).
Meanwhile, we're building the Taj Majal of forensics centers, as this Pharaoh's monument while the county's elderly are sentenced to McClure's Gracedale. But take heart. At least their autopsies will be performed at the finest forensics center in the state.
"Council better investigate this situation before there is a tragedy."
One tragedy at a time, sir or madame. They're currently working the plastic straw tragedy. Take a number.
ALL employees pay SUC-S! We are not getting paid for what we do, however, Administration is paid highly! They created a position for Amy Cozze so her husband and her have medical benefits. POLITICAL PAYBACK. COME ON COUNCIL DO WHAT YOU WERE ELECTED TO DO!
fuck a bunch of union puke crybabies. sell the white elephant and rid us of the unions and save taxpayers monies
Only 8 nursing jobs posted on County Web site. Should post total numbers for positions needed.
Counties should no longer be in the nursing home business. It is not a core function of county government. Gracedale is too large. It us a bloated institution with a union mentality. There is a severe shortage of nurses, especially geriatric. Gracedale can never compete in this shallow talent pool. The county should have sold Gracedale when they had a chance. Now, they must reduce bed capacity since they have insufficient staffing. And financially that is a problem. They are in a bad place.
Prison, Juvenile detention, and 911 are way too short-staffed, constantly posting jobs. Why work in those thankless places when you can make more in the private sector and not get constantly mandated?
No surprise here.unfortunately the county's main concern is turning a profit. So, they will work with the least amount of staff as possible. Its the same at the Jail and Juvenile center from what I hear. I'd like to see McClure and others have to work 16 hour days two days and sometimes 3 days in a row. Maybe then they would begin to see the devastation it causes.
Based on your report I watched the video. McClure sounded angry and came off as belligerent. He wants to have a one size fits all plan but that does not appear to be working. He needs to treat Gracedale differently than the rest of the county. They have a vastly different mission. People of very fragile conditions live there and depend fully on staff, McClure must not make it his way or the high way. County Council must step in if he lets this situation fester. Time for the council to have a committee that investigates Gracedale and does not just read reports.
This is more important than plastic straws. Pull your heads out of your asses people.
They seem to love there heads up there asses. Some tell me it's like a huge benwa balls tickling there personal fancies. Most also jump at the chance of youtinizing the old folks because there design is like the opposite end of babby killers.
Lamont is never going to lose the support of the union because they paid for him and have nowhere else to go. He'll just gently remind them to shut the hell up or the place will get sold. And the union will shut up and get back in line. Again, they're all-in for Lamont and have no other options. Everybody's on the same team and the nurses will have to sit quietly at the end of the bench. That's how the game is played.
I refuse to sit on that bench!
Can the county break even fully staffed? If not there are two choices: sell it or come to terms that the proper level of care equals financial loss.
I'm in no position to answer this questions but it seems like reality needs to check in and ask these questions.
You are 100% correct!! Fix it before you kill someone who's family has enough money to sue your sorry asses.
Or leave....
Who is county council's point person on Gracedale? They should do their job.
Paying people more but letting them remain short staffed is not gonna cut it! No amount of money can cure lack of care staff and mandatory OT consequences. The two are not mutually beneficial! Get your mind right Lamont!
The results are in and there seems to be bipartisan agreement that this administration is a flaming disaster. As we approach the 10th anniversary of this LVR Hall Of Fame post, it's painfully evident that, "this administration couldn't build a birdhouse."
Yours in Ornithology,
TGOSP
https://lehighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-john-stoffa-builds-birdhouses.html
This Gracedale debacle is a disgrace! McClure's track record so far, hasn't surprised me. He has to kiss the asses of the people who got him elected- in the meantime, the prison, 911 center, and especially the Juvenile Detention center, are severely understaffed. In the meantime, he's handing out jobs to his cronies, like Amy Cozze and Scott Parsons. A leopard never changes his spots- he was an arrogant, awful council member, so his lack of empathy in taking care of "the county's most vulnerable" shouldn't surprise anyone!
A majority of the staff at Gracedale care deeply about the residents, but are forced to do such an intense workload that they aren't being able to give the residents the quality care that they need. Long gone is the time where we could sit and talk to residents, who once had lives and families that they love talking about and reminiscing. Instead they are considered just a number by administration, not a person. We have so many psych residents that they keeping allowing in, that we are in NO way equipped to deal with. We have alerr,"with it" residents who halert, endure hearing another resident screaming all through the night or throwing things at that, risk being smacked in the face or worse by these psych residents that we cannot manage. We get so much pressure put on us from administration....more work every day and it is much beyond what any person is physically or emotionally able to handle. They deny requested days off that you put in months of advance, nor expect you to drop everything in your life and mandate you to work overtime, regardless if you have kids to pick up from school or a vacation planned to start after your shift...they do not care. They have LPNs running units, which is in their scope of practice, but they get about 8 dollars less an hour to do exactly the same thing an RN would be doing, besides inserting IVs or flushing ports. The morale is so low because they DO NOT respect their employees, the employees time or their families. What it comes down to is, FORCING your employees to be mandated and NOT giving them any EXTRA compensation for doing it, while rejecting days off that you request and belittling you most times..and the staff is FED UP. Treat your employees better and maybe they'd be willing to help. And the lack of support from the County is disheartening as well. Both staff and residents suffer together, and it is not fair to anyone involved.
Put Dertringer and Cozze up there and let them work for their money and benefits. Better yet, let them live in the same room as a resident live in and eat the same food for at least a week.
County council and county administration want Gracedale “fixed” overnight or sooner. One person said to “lean on whoever you have to” to fix the issues. Leaning won’t help but some simple math and common sense will.It appears that available staffing cannot readily and safely take care of the number of residents. While hiring more staff would appear to be the simple answer, that is not easily accomplished these days in long term care. The alternative? Decrease census by closing units and downsizing overall. While “filling the beds” brings in revenue, it puts the residents at risk for poor care if there is not sufficient staff to take care of them. LPNs are capable of performing many of the tasks of an RN but their license does not permit them to “assess”. It was frightening to read of residents laying on the floor for up to 30 minutes until an RN could be located. Time is precious after a resident fall and could in some cases be the difference between life and death. Over worked and burned out staff leads to everything described by the staff at that meeting plus more;namely, a higher risk of errors. How long can the staff work under those conditions without making mistakes, or causing injury to the residents or themselves? Finally, administration! Experienced administration is needed and quickly. It appears that no one can successfully troubleshoot the issues at Gracedale. It cannot survive much longer in its present state. Somebody do something already or sell it.
In the past even Bernie noted the criticism of both McClure and Dertinger. They were always somewhat arrogant. McClure gives canned speeches and Dertinger sees himself as some sort of Lord of the Manor. The situation at Gracedale needs to be assessed beyond a political view. If Northampton County wants to keep it they must work to resolve the problems. I believe many of the county officials truly want the Home to work well.
It may be time for County Council to take a leadership role.
Bernie, the it's not only want to cover themselves in fetus remnant now elderly excrements are the nue in thing too! It's think it will keep them relevant and inconeato as well as fasionable?
If he can't think beyond hid "pattern" there will always be a problem. Just not that simple.
Fact check: The Jail is not understaffed. Council added 6 Corrections Officer jobs this year.
The CO’s are currently fighting over the overtime.
Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good complaint though.
I would think every council member will go to Gracedale and see for themselves what the situation really is and they need to do so quickly. They also need to talk privately with the direct care aides/staff.. who do the really hard work..not just the nurses. Fear of reprisals is real. Do not ask questions and expect the truth with a boss standing over the conversations. Council needs to act...now!
Nurses should pipe down on their selfish money grab and perform some serious introspection for the benefit of the county at large. Are you doing everything you can to eliminate your use of plastic straws? Yeah. I didn't thinks so. Shut up, get back to work, and stop wrecking our environment.
Don't rely on some of the new council members you voted fro they only do and say what the administration lets them.
At least two..of the new council members..will be travelling soon to Gracedale..to see and hear for themselves..what the truth of the matter is.
According to the article, the one employee made a point. If they are so so soooo understaffed, then Gracedale should be rolling in dough. Or not?
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