Jennifer Stewart-King, Gracedale's Administrator, has sent a memo to these workers, appealing to them to return to work.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of the heroes who have continued to come to work at Gracedale during this challenging time. You truly are heroes to our residents!
I am writing to all of you to implore everyone who has not been working to return to work. I know Covid-19 is scary to many of you, but it is important to remember that most people who test positive for this virus experience mild symptoms. Many of your coworkers have continued to not only come to work their normal shifts at Gracedale, but have also stepped up and taken on additional shifts to cover for all of the absences. Your coworkers who are coming to work understand it is our moral obligation to care for the residents at Gracedale, especially during this difficult time. We need you to put your residents first. Gracedale has ample personal protective equipment (PPE) for every staff member to keep you as safe as possible in a healthcare setting. For some staff who have been fearful to go to the units where there are residents with Covid, I have personally taken them to the units in PPE to alleviate their concerns. Dawn Tuersfeldman has done the same and we will both continue to do so whenever it will help someone be comfortable enough to return to work.
There is also some good news to report. So far, we have had 22 employees who tested positive for Covid-19, some of whom have already returned to work. We have 35 residents who tested positive for Covid, and 6 of them are recovering.
Again, it is your moral obligation to come to work to care for the residents at Gracedale who rely entirely on you being here to care for them. They too are scared and lonely, and need everyone to return to work to help them through all of this.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Stewart King
17 comments:
Wow - I have a bit of a problem with this. And it isn't that the administrator of the largest nursing home in the state randomly misspells the virus. It isn't Covid-19 or Covid. It is COVID-19 or 2019-nCoV.
While there may be a moral obligation, people are not obligated to put their own health at risk, and/or their family members. Many health professionals are self quarantining from family members when they are off duty - but I don't know that they should feel obligated to live under such circumstances.
Fire their asses; get people who want to work for a living! Where, oh where, is Ron Angle when we need him?
"It isn't Covid-19 or Covid. It is COVID-19 or 2019-nCoV."
Give me a fuckin' break. There is no grammatical rule on how this virus should be spelled. I personally prefer to use Covid-19. You are just looking for an excuse to rip into her. And if you want to get technical and prove you know what you're talking about, whiuch you don't, you'd use the actual technical name - SARS-CoV-2.
12:28, You must have received your education from Kelly Anne Conway.
John Cusick was right on voting against firing the company running Gracedale. McClure has screwed the entire place up. The employees hate it.
This is a disaster. The county has failed and killed people. It shouldn't be in the nursing home business. It can't manage this behemoth without killing patients and endangering employees. Save the moral obligation stuff and make the place safer. It's a mess.
On the news one can see how the professionals in hospitals are suited up to care for individuals with the virus. What kind of PP equipment are the staff offered? Do they change it when they leave the affected person's room. Are they given enough time and equipment to get care completed? Nursing home staff work in direct close contact with residents. Every mask and other equipment should be assumed to have been contaminated after patient care. In a nursing home each resident and staff should be assumed to have the virus. Reliance on temperature only tells you that the infected person has not shown that symptom yet. That's how you stop the spread and protect staff and residents. And that is not what will be done in care facilities.
The County (employer) is not providing the LEGALLY MANDATED PPE to the County employees.
How did McClure trying to get other County employees to help at Gracedale work. NOT! No one trusts him. Didn't see Dertinger, Cozze, Kelly, him or any of his appointed step up. Did any Council members like Heckman like he said that he would do? How do you expect other when they don't set an example. One more year and gone!!!!
Bernie, I see the grammar police have infected this article before morning. We're you just leaving that bar up there in Nazareth at 201 to counter this type of assklowns comment.
Nursing Homes all throughout the State are experiencing the same problem. Employees are putting their families well being first and their low paying jobs at nursing homes second. Those employers like Northampton County who balance their budgets on the backs of these hard working employees ought to have learned their lesson years ago when the employees had to strike to increase their low wages up to a livable wage. Going private with the Nursing Home would be a bigger disaster. Look at the atrocious problems the private nursing homes are having with poor health care for their residents, dirty working conditions, improper diets, etc.
Our Gracedale workers are true HEROES. I don't know if I could go to work everyday and bring those problems home to my family. There is no doubt that these employees are dedicated to the residents (if they weren't you would see the absenteeism numbers soaring higher than the virus numbers) Thank you Gracedale workers.
Bernie O'Hare said...
12:28, You must have received your education from Kelly Anne Conway.
April 22, 2020 at 2:01 AM
You're a very snotty person. Try some manners.
Spelling?
"Four point six trillion" is the correct spelling.
Now fight to back to work without healthcare, sick pay, daycare, weighed down with college debt, as you step over the homeless and mentally ill turned away from the hospitals for lack of insurance, on your way to the ice cream shop. Tricked again.
I have on good information that employees from County 911 Center have volunteered to assist in this time of need and were turned away. This was based on the decision that they were unreplaceable if they got sick. There was a question posed to HR about part time work from 911 Employees working EMS jobs and how was that any different and no legitimate answer was provided.
So the recruitment program forRNs and hiring people failed...the advertising failed...they are reduced to begging workers to return while overworking those there.....quite the plan
McClure really screwed the place up. He fired the company running it due to union pressure and they don't know what they are doing. This is what happens when a Trump junior rums local government.
Gracedale was short staffed before the pandemic, staff was being mandated then. I think it’s really convenient to blame the staff for not showing up now. How many of the call outs came from contracted agencies? How many came from staff who had to quarantine after exposure? How many from the staff that sadly tested positive? It would also be good to know the breakdown on how many of the call outs came from direct care staff? ie. Charge RNs, LPNs and NAs? It’s a very big facility with multiple departments. It would be nice if the County would provide specific numbers of call outs per department.
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