Last week, Gracedale Administrator Jennifer Stewart-King told Northampton County Council that the nursing home has a three-step re-opening plan that it will start implementing once it has been Covid-19 free for 14 days. Last week, the facility was declared Covid free, with no cases among residents or staff. "Compassionate care" visits are permitted for residents who are terminal or who are overly stressed by the absence of visitors. While this limited exception exists, visitors must don masks, gloves and gowns.
The pandemic has hit the county nursing home, which is the largest in the state, very hard. Since March 6, the SARS-Cov-2 virus has infected 244 residents and 57 employees. Sadly, 76 residents have succumbed.
The census is 525, well below its target of 670. This shortcoming, however, has failed to hurt the home financially. During the first six months of this year, Gracedale generated $50 million in revenue with $47 million in expenses. It has received about $5.8 million form the CARES Act for "infection control," which does include hazard pay and increased sanitation costs.
The home has received a total of 22 visits from the state Department of Health this year. Moreover, it has formed a response team in association with Lehigh Valley Hospital to employ best practices in combating the virus.
Staffing in nursing care is an issue. According to Nursing Director Dawn Tuersfeldman, 131 employees are on some form of FMLA, IFMLA or discretionary leaves of absence. Another nine are on light duty. A whopping 125 have applied for unemployment. Executive Lamont McClure said those are primarily terminations. This problem, however, has yet to negatively impact care. Steart=-King noted the facility is still managin to provide 3.19 hours of nursing care daily to each resident.
"We're so proud of you," said Council VP Lori-Vargo Heffner.
For his part, Council President Ron Heckman downplayed the fatalities, noting that many of the residents who died had co-morbidities."All in all, I think Gracedale has performed above and beyond every reasonable expectation," he correctly declared. But Heckman, who has a habit of putting his foot in his mouth, followed up with this completely tone-deaf statement: "Some folks are harping on, 'Some people have died.' Yeah, they did. A lot of people have died in this country."
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.
12 comments:
What happened at LTCFs throughout the state was outrageous and should be thoroughly investigated. Gracedale was the worst. But Heckman and McClure and their fellow travelers didn't say a word in opposition to their party leader whose decisions proved deadly to 76 Northampton County souls. Heckman may be the dumbest person ever to serve on council. And there have been some real winners over the years. I'd like to see him react to his mom and dad getting offed in front of him while he was powerless to intervene. That's what happened to Gracedale families and Heckman thinks it's cool because there were only 76 of them. What a heartless piece of shit. Will any of these cowards speak out against Wolf's deadly decisions?
McClure said 125 people have filed for unemployment but those are terminations. Just what does that mean? were these employees concerned about coming to work because they have elderly at home or maybe children. Were they overburdened by the work load, or maybe stressed out?
Thank you.
I'm not sure exactly what he meant and there seemed to be some confusion. They are going to bring in someone from HR to explain at the next meeting. He seemed to think the people who are collecting are people who have been terminated. Gracedale has high turnover for a myriad of reasons.
"What happened at LTCFs throughout the state was outrageous and should be thoroughly investigated. Gracedale was the worst. But Heckman and McClure and their fellow travelers didn't say a word in opposition to their party leader whose decisions proved deadly to 76 Northampton County souls."
We know what happened.
First, Dr. Levine issued an order sending residents who were hospitalized with Covid-19 back to the homes. I am unsure whether Gracedale followed that order. I remember Jennifer Stewart King saying at one meeting that there had to be two negative tests first, but I have yet to ask her that personally.
Second, thanks to the Trump administration, there was an initial shortage of testing. It was only done on persons who exhibited symptoms, and this meant that asymptomatic staff members were bringing it in, and once it got in, it was like wildfire. There should have been targeted testing from the onset, but that was impossible thanks to your hero.
So the two main reasons for these deaths are both Tom Wolf and Donald Trump. They obviously meant well, but their mistakes resulted in people dying.
NorCo and many other local government performed quite well. Very early, McClure banned visitors and volunteers ti prevent community spread. He set up an isolation ward AND MADE SURE the home was supplied with PPE. He brought in the national guard and offered hazard pay. As soon as more tests became available, he had EVERYONE tested and did catch a few asymptomatic people. You bash him for not condemning Wolf. Why would he do that when he needed the state to help with testing and PPE? That could have meant even more deaths.
Gracedale still had 76 deaths, and there is no way to sugarcoat it. Nor should it be minimized, as Heckman tried to do. We all know there were co-morbidities, which is precisely why it spread so easily. These were still people, and I saw zero empathy from our Council President. He really needs to learn the wisdom of letting others speak.
Although state staffing minimum is lower than 3.1 I can tell you that 3.19 is not a level of care that you would want your loved ones to have. Some days 50 residents have two nursing assistants to help them with all their needs. It is not enough. They shouldn't be proud of that. They should be looking for ways to improve it. This isn't just since the pandemic. This has been years of not having enough staff. All the plans haven't worked to get or keep staff. The residents suffer.
Ridiculous to lay responsibility for Pennsylvania or the County’s problems on Trump. But, that’s part of the ongoing narrative. It was the responsibility of each state, repeat state, to manage its resources and shift needed items around. More importantly, each state needed to request aid as needed. Besides, new test kits for any specific, before unknown virus takes time.
There's nothing ridiculous about it at all. Trump initially downplayed and denied there was a problem, and his administration screwed up on both test kits and PPE. They actually rejected test kits that were already available. America First nation looks much more like America Last. That led to more cases and more deaths. He politicized the issue, leading a large segment of his worshipers to deny there is a problems and refuse to wear masks. This led to even more deaths. His handling has been disgraceful and full of outright lies. America First looks much more like America Last.
12:09 :
The first CDC test kits which were available were modified Swine flu kits produced during the OBAMA administration, which were available. and uhh. defective.
When a tragedy first hits. Do we want a leader to say the sky is falling and we are all going to die or do we want a leader who displays hope. Remember we never had a pandemic like this in most of our lives. No one knew what was to come. I prefer the message if hope from our leaders whomever they are
"The first CDC test kits which were available were modified Swine flu kits produced during the OBAMA administration, which were available. and uhh. defective."
And you are full of shit/. The first test kits came from the WHO, and the US declined yto use them in favor of their own, which were defective. It was blatant incompetence from Trump's CDC.
"When a tragedy first hits. Do we want a leader to say the sky is falling and we are all going to die or do we want a leader who displays hope."
First and foremost, you want leaders to tell the truth. This Trump failed to do. He lied and politicized a public health crisis. He's still lying and politicizing it.
I decline to post comments accusing county officials of lying unless backed up by hard facts.
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