Five NorCo Nursing Homes, Including Gracedale, Below State Staffing Standard

Under Pennsylvania law, each nursing home resident must receive 2.7 hours of general nursing care every day. This state protection is obviously designed to protect some of our most vulnerable citizens. But at five of Northampton County's 14 nursing home, this state regulation is being ignored. A review of the Medicare ratings reveals that staffing shortages exist at The Gardens at Easton, The Gardens for Memory Care at Easton, New Eastwood Healthcare and Rehab Center, Slate Belt Health and Rehab Center, Weston Rehab and Nursing Center and Gracedale. The only publicly owned nursing home is Gracedale.

Staffing shortages lead to resident mishaps. This should be remedied at Gracedale simply because it is the right thing to do. It should be added that failure to comply with state standards would be considered negligence per se in the event of litigation over a resident mishap.

Here's where Gracedale stacks up on staffing, according to Medicare.

	GRACEDALE - NORTHAMPTON COUNTY Staffing	PENNSYLVANIA AVERAGE	NATIONAL AVERAGE
Staffing rating	2 out of 5 stars Below Average
Average number of residents per day	661.7	109.5	85.7
Total number of licensed nurse staff hours per resident per day	1 hour and 19 minutes	1 hour and 41 minutes	1 hour and 33 minutes
RN hours per resident per day	26 minutes	49 minutes	41 minutes
LPN/LVN hours per resident per day	53 minutes	51 minutes	53 minutes
Nurse aide hours per resident per day	2 hours and 4 minutes	2 hours and 10 minutes	2 hours and 19 minutes
Physical therapist staff hours per resident per day	2 minutes	6 minutes	5 minutes

Gracedale is below both the state and national average.

Late last year, Pa. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale announced plans to audit the state's nursing homes over staffing shortages. He said then adequate staffing levels directly impact the quality of care provided to 90,000 Pennsylvanians — more than the population of Lancaster and Johnstown combined — who live in nursing homes.

Gracedale officials are doing their best to hire more people. But let's be real. In a recovering economy, the pool of people willing to clean bedpans tends to shrink.