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Monday, November 07, 2022

Gracedale Continues to Improve

Last week Gracedale Administrator Jennifer Stewart-King updated Northampton County Council. Its October census average was 407, with  281 open beds. There were 234 referrals, 13 admissions and 13 discharges .The wait list is at 32. There was an average of two residents and two staffers suffering from COVID. 

The most important data point is the PPD or Patient Per Day Average. This is the number of nursing care hours that must be provided to each resident on a daily basis. The state standard was 2.7 hours, but Gracedale was having difficulty meeting 2.5. As a result, Gracedale began to hire more outside nursing agencies and reduced census. That strategy is working, even with the state increasing its PPD. 

The new PPD is 2.87, In October, Gracedale's PPD average was 3.20. 

Stewart-King advised County Council last week that she will now try to increase the census gradually. She added that some employees who had left the nursing home have returned. 

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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 7, 2022 at 12:20 AM

    Do you realize we are paying a helluva lot more for outside nursing staff then what we pay our own people. Why can't we save that money and pay our people what they deserve?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 7, 2022 at 10:21 AM

    I do not know how to emphasize that a 3.2 is below what is actually necessary to provide decent comprehensive care. If you want to retain staff and improve quality you need at least a 3.5. start increasing the census and I promise you will loose staff and quality and be right back where you started. Retention is also about making workload manageable to your staff. A 3.2 barely makes it manageable. Quality can not be met at anything below. Do yourselves a favor and don't increase census.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 8, 2022 at 9:25 AM

    Eventually, the census will be <100 and the level of care will be stellar. The cost will also be stellar. Things aren't really getting better. We're watching a shell game.

    ReplyDelete

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