I wondered why there was no Gracedale report at last night's monthly Human Services meeting. In view of all the bad news coming out of the facility, I was suspicious. My concerns were soon laid to rest when Northampton County Exec Lamont McClure made his report to county council. He wants to spend $15 million to keep Gracedale nursing home county owned and operated.
He noted that Gracedale's existence is threatened for two reasons.
First, it seems likely that the amount of nursing care that must be provided to each resident on a daily basis is going to rise sharply. This is known as PPD. Currently, the state standard is that each resident at a nursing home be provided with 2.7 hours of nursing care daily. Gracedale is currently struggling to get to 2.5 hours. The new standard is reportedly 4.1 hours per day.
Second, Gracedale houses four residents to a room. But that's going to change so that nursing homes will be limited to no more than two residents per room.
Either of these changes will almost certainly be a death knell for Gracedale. McClure indicated he is lobbying state legislators to soften the blow at the largest county-owned nursing home in the state.
He noted that Gracedale was saved once before when the county had all but sold the home. When the county receives its second installment of $30 million in American Rescue Plan money, he wants to commit $15 million to Gracedale. Of this sum, $12 million will be devoted to nursing costs. Another $2 million will fuind an on-site daycare center. The final $1 million will be devoted to capital projects.
"If Gracedale can be saved, it will be saved, and we're going all in to do it."
County Council had no immediate questions. They control the purse strings, so they must buy in.
Caring for our elderly should be the highest priority. Good move.
ReplyDeleteAt least that much if not more.
ReplyDeleteWhat benefit does keeping an expensive, failing county owned tax payer funded nursing around. A nursing home that can't keep staff, can't compete and can't properly care for its residents? If this were a daycare the state would have already shut them down, no? There is no benefit to this...the train ride has come to an end and it is time to get off and out of the nursing home business. Use that money to properly pay the other employees who bust their butts each day to barely get by. Nurses can easily get high paying jobs elsewhere and they already are so the shutdown effecting employees is a moot point. It is time!
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ReplyDeleteget rid of the white elephant and its employees. Save taxpayer money
You need only look at the vacancies at Gracedale to wonder exactly how it is that it is even functional at this point. When you have vacancies beginning with Asst. Administrator, Asst. Director of Nursing, Staff Development, Infection Control Director, Clinic Director, LPNs, CNAS, Dietary, Housekeeping, and RNs at every level from charge nurse to supervisor, it is evident that this is exactly what Lamont had in mind from the beginning; namely, to lay the blame for its failure at the feet of everyone but himself. It is McClure and the toxic administration he has put in place at Gracedale who are to blame for the obvious demise of Gracedale, not the hard working staff who care for the residents. If you doubt this information, Bernie, check out these vacancies and more online.
ReplyDeleteThere obviously was no Gracedale report at the Human Services meeting because McClure doesn’t want to answer any questions and he doesn’t want Gracedale administration to answer any either.
Why doesn't the state mandate separate cells, err, rooms for all inmates eh, I mean residents?
ReplyDeleteThese people need more social interaction now, not less. I spent a year in Gracedale and believe me, loneliness and isolation is a huge factor in failure to thrive. What's the state's next recommendation? 24 hour lockdown for nursing care and zoom-only family visits?
I applaud the effort such as it is now that the wolf is at the door. Tough times call for tough decisions. This is a no brainer and I hope it works as I may some day be a resident. The money needs to be spent or sent back so why not! Other states blowing their fed. money on stupid crap. At least this qualifies and makes sense. No more kicking this can down the road!
ReplyDeleteIt's too late , unless you get rid of the current administration things will and are getting worse and a daycare , yeah ok wow what a waste , back in the day when this place was thriving I could see it but now NO WAY Nobody wants to work there , the place is falling apart it's time to load up the new bus and take these residents to where they will be cared for properly
ReplyDeleteWhistling past the graveyard. The economics don't work and won't work, thus McClure's wish to lower standards vs improve care. He knows how this ends, But he doesn't want to be the guy who finally closes the place.
ReplyDeleteToo many people like the woks
ReplyDeleteThis is a terrible decision. Gracedale is bleeding money to the point that he's using the bulk of the federal funds - a windfall - to cover nursing (operating) costs?
ReplyDeleteThat's incredibly stupid and will only result in the taxpayers having to pony up next time. It's not just kicking the can down the road, it's actively creating the next crisis.
The bottom line is that Gracedale is an incredibly expensive operation that benefits a limited few county residents. Other (better) options exist than having it remain in county hands. It's time to sell, and get the county out of a business it shouldn't have been in for the last 75 years.
County Council would have to be a bunch of idiots to "buy in" to this stupidity. Oh wait...
Do not know much about the situation. But 15 million dollars is a ton of tax payers dollars for 1 nursing home. I'm curious to know if 1 nursing home is worth it to keep county owned?
ReplyDeleteThe effort although late is appreciated. But a million is in reality not enough to make this old unkept home updated for the residents. It's their home and a million hardly covers general upkeep needs include community bathroom issues.
ReplyDeleteToo late! Get rid of him, bow-tie, and the Gracedale Administration.
ReplyDeleteI voted against keeping the nursing home. I didn't think our county government had the expertise. I was doubtful that political motivations could be removed when making financial decisons regarding Gracedale. I was right.
ReplyDeleteWhen the referendum failed I felt that my fellow citizens had spoken, so let's get the place straightened out. It hasn't worked out that way though. Just like I feared it's been a disaster.
How has no one figured out that the current director of nursing is almost solely responsible for the downfall of this institution? She has a nasty habit of showing disrespect bordering on contempt for her staff, who have been worn down to the point of tears and flee for their mental health. Her actions have always been self-serving and have had nothing to do with bettering the facility but protecting and promoting herself by way of throwing everyone else under the bus. Not to mention she is completely incompetent and thinks that everyone she works with is inferior to her. Ask the staff whom she's refused to help out on the units (apparently nursing work is beneath her, even though she's a nurse) and the staff whom she's written up for no good reason (both to be her scapegoat and to ease her insecurity at her knowledge that she has no goddamn idea what she's doing). But telling county council and McClure what they want to hear instead of hard truths and appropriately hard solutions? THAT is something she definitely excels at. Don't waste your money on fixing Gracedale, it is doomed because of Dawn. As someone who has lived in the Lehigh Valley my whole life I'm going to say something I never thought I would say: spend that money to transition those patients and staff out of there and let Gracedale shut down with dignity. Or sell it and let it no longer be our problem.
ReplyDeleteMay all of you who are complaining about Gracedale be Genius enough to have save and hoarded away so that you never have to utilize a place like this. And you better hope that you don't have one major situation in your life that drains you of all your assets. Or you could be just like anyone of the occupants you so much want to send to the street. Although there is the other option for you - die early and save the money.
ReplyDeleteGracedale residents are not getting the care that they need so we don't want them out on the street we want them in a better facility that's going to be able to take care of them and it's not because of the nurses AIDeS and the nurses it's because of that administration bringing place down to its knees,so don't put words in our mouth , I would never let my mother or father live there
DeleteLet's hope a facility finds your mom and dad revenue generating enough to admit them. Quite a few Gracedale residents were kicked out of for profit facilities because they ran out of money.
DeleteI say we stop paving roads. Everyone wants to save taxpayers money. That will save hundreds of millions of dollars. Oh yeah no one would ever go for that because it impacts them directly.
ReplyDeleteThey all know it needs to close and nobody wants to be the one to drop the ax. Lamont already has a legacy of carelessness, heartlessness, insincerity, and irresponsibility. He's a lawyer and those are prerequisites. But he doesn't want to be the Democratic party soldier who takes Gracedale off life support. It speaks to the courage and set of brass balls John Stoffa had. I know he saddled the county with decades of needless economic stress by erecting his human services Taj Majal. Guys who never earned an honest private sector dollar always do that. But he at least knew that Gracedale was an unnecessary cruelty being inflicted on its residents, their families, and taxpayers.
ReplyDeleteHe did this because he is pissed at council for all their studies. This was another headline steal by McClure. Let's see if he really does anything for Gracedale. So far, he has mucked it up.
ReplyDeleteannon 5:32, that is why McClure is out in the public telling people all of Gracedale's problems are due to county council. He is throwing them under the bus to save himself.
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