Northampton County Council's Human Services Committee was updated last week about Gracedale, the county-owned nursing home. Administrator Jennifer Stewart King was unavailable, so the report was provided instead by Human Services Director Sue Wandalowski. She painted a rather rosy picture, saying that the facility is bringing in more workers than it is losing, although reliance on nursing provided by outside agencies is still too high. She reported that a day care for employees still needs to be outfitted and licensed. Census stands at 411, and the county is looking to increase that number to 425-450. She finally stated that a new Director of Nursing is scheduled to start in April.
What Wandalowski failed to address is the latest Medicare and Medicaid rating of the home, which was updated online on February 28. Gracedale had been listed as average (three stars), but that has dropped again to below average (two stars), mostly because of staffing.
According to what is reported online, Gracedale's nursing care for each resident stands at just 2 hours and 45 minutes a day, over an hour below the three hour 47 minute state and national average.
Contacted over the weekend, Executive Lamont McClure indicated the online report is a mistake. He said the PPD (nursing care per patient per day) is actually 3.7. He indicated that an error was made when the report was filed with the Medicare and Medicaid Center.
A similar error last year resulted in Gracedale having a one-star rating, and the nursing home had to wait for the next round of ratings to clear it up.
Our community is very fortunate to have to have Gracedale. However, most counties have sold their home.
ReplyDeleteMcClueless said it was an error. Of course we must all believe that.
ReplyDeleteThe county blew the chance years ago to rid themselves of this white elephant. It was a burden on the taxpayer then and it is one now.
I suspect you have a Charles Darwin bobble head and please give your name to the county that you refuse any assistance from them in any way
DeleteA new ADON is in place. Things are really starting to look up at Gracedale.
ReplyDeleteIt will take more than that. Reports don’t lie. 2 stars are 2 stars and if the reports are errors, who made them? More incompetence.
DeleteLamont works on the weekend ?
ReplyDeleteI think Brown and Goffredo pledged during the campaign to push Gracedale over a cliff, and it’s half way there.
ReplyDeleteLori Vargo Hefner returned from CPAP to praise Wonderlawski and Norco Human Services compared to the rest of the state. I guess she was premature.
ReplyDeleteFunny I work for the county and am continually seeing people getting written up for missing something small on paperwork. So what do you think happened to this person with this so called mistake on paperwork. Cause the county run nursing home to be rated lower. To me that is a very large mistake, not just an oops!!!! But I'm sure if Lamont is covering for this it is one of his amazing appointees.
ReplyDeleteThe home is so costly to run because of agency nurses. Lamont needs to hire his own staff now !
ReplyDeleteThe Right Honorable Lori Heffner and her Republican majority voted to strip millions of dollars from Gracedale’s budget last year.
ReplyDeleteToo few residents. Too many private nurses. We need to pay employees more.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, just MAYBE, if the County would pay decent wages for nurses, they might be able to hire people to work at the County Nursing home. You can't keep screwing your employees and expect stellar performance from them. McClure should do the Pay study and correct the wage inequities for our workers.
ReplyDeleteHow much does Gracedale cost the county taxpayers per year ?
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is CPAP ?
ReplyDelete"How much does Gracedale cost the county taxpayers per year ?"
ReplyDeleteNothing.
"What the hell is CPAP ?"
I believe that person was referring to CCAP, the County Comm'rs Ass'n of Pa.
"The Right Honorable Lori Heffner and her Republican majority voted to strip millions of dollars from Gracedale’s budget last year."
ReplyDeleteI don't know where you got that notion. Please tell me what cuts were made to Gracedale.
"The county blew the chance years ago to rid themselves of this white elephant. It was a burden on the taxpayer then and it is one now."
ReplyDeleteIt is not a burden to taxpayers but certainly is a burden to county administrators and council.
I don't want to sound ignorant, but here is a stupid question. How does the county nursing home come at no cost to the taxpayer?
ReplyDeleteI think the hospitals want both Lehigh and Northampton counties to have nursing homes. These people end up in their ERs if these beds disappear.
ReplyDelete11:58, No county contribution is needed. It is paid for from insurance, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, just like any other nursing home, public or private.
ReplyDeleteFor God’s sake, don’t sell beds.
ReplyDeleteWhat is this obsession with a nursing home ?
ReplyDeleteWithout Gracedale, many of these people would be homeless. Don’t make the homelessness problem worse !
ReplyDeleteThose star ratings are a joke. I bet most homes game the system to get them ? The Feds should chuck the whole thing in the waste bin.
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, this is the second time “paperwork” has been messed up. Whose fault is this ?
ReplyDeleteBernie you should follow up and find out how many contractors are working at gracedale and make an article.
ReplyDeleteDoesn’t seem like Stewart-King has been doing a great job as CEO of Gracedale.
ReplyDeleteClosing Gracedale will flood the streets with sick homeless people. Stop attacking Gracedale.
ReplyDeleteThis is a rinse and repeat story about why most counties have sold their homes. Still, some stooge comes on to lie about the budget being cut by LVH. That's also rinse and repeat from the usual liars club. Lori is un-woke a couple days per year, and the unhinged compare her to Trump. The purity test is getting increasingly strict. BTW, John Stoffa was right about Gracedale, all along. And they really hated him for it.
ReplyDeleteIsn’t this the second time Gracedale lost a star rating due to an error in paperwork? Who is making these costly errors? Didn’t the ADON leave?
ReplyDeleteDon left. Many Adons left. Must be a new one too
DeleteGracedale should also have funding from the Inter Governmental Transfer account….if it’s still in play….contribution was $2 million dollars per year …..should have enough funding to pay for good accounting person to stop errors.
ReplyDeleteCounty Council needs to support, not attack Gracedale. These poor people have nowhere else to go. We must keep Gracedale county owned.
ReplyDeleteIf the Republicans win in ‘25, we won’t have this conversation anymore. They are going to close the place.
ReplyDeleteThanks BO. But how does the county fit into the picture? If Gracedale's operation is covered by insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid, why such a fuss about the county owning and running the facility. I'm terrible with math.
ReplyDeleteMore of the famous Mcclure "clerical errors" just like the voting machine screw-ups. The guy is slick.
ReplyDelete"Isn’t this the second time Gracedale lost a star rating due to an error in paperwork? Who is making these costly errors?"
ReplyDeleteLast time it was an ass't administrator who has since resigned. I do not know who is responsibnle for the moist recent error or if it was even on the county end.
I rejected a comment asserting that there was a $15 million deficit at Gracedale last year. That is a lie uttered by Council member John Brown. Exec Lamont McClure addressed and disproved this lie at a meeting the following day.
ReplyDeleteOr at least he managed to fudge the numbers well.
DeleteYes, Gracedale gets an IGT every year, and believe it or not, it was actually restored under Trump. Without the IGT, would a county contribution be needed? Probably. It houses a large number of people with nowhere else to go. But no county tax dollars have been poured into Gracedale for several years, including when Brown was Exec.
ReplyDeleteThe CARES and ARPA Act $ was used at Gracedale for things like bonuses, Covid, the daycare and capital improvements. It was not used for operational expenses.
But if you think it us time to close the home, why not ID yourself and make it a campaign theme? Or at least tell us who gave you this garbage, aside from Brown?
All for Gracedale staying with the County.
DeleteIt was managed much better when DFreeman had his group in it. The key is navigating the state and federal guidelines to gain optimum funding.
"Doesn’t seem like Stewart-King has been doing a great job as CEO of Gracedale."
ReplyDeleteI'll disagree. She really cares about the residents. It takes a special kind of person to care about nasty old farts like me, although I'm not shotting my pants yet.
I can understand if the admissions managers role has any play into this considering his outstanding role as a council prez
ReplyDelete"Last time it was an ass't administrator who has since resigned. I do not know who is responsibnle for the moist recent error or if it was even on the county end."
ReplyDeleteThe ass't administrator resigned prior to the first error and was not involved in the cause of the error.
8:48, I have checked my previous stories and you are correct. According to what I wrote at the time, "The poor rating is actually the result of a failure by the county's IT provider to transmit the data federal officials need to provide a rating. Without this information, Medicare and Medicaid just assumed the worst and gave the facility a one-star rating." I believe the asst admin was involved in working manually with existing software before his departure.
ReplyDeletehttps://lehighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com/2021/12/gracedales-one-star-rating-due-to-it.html
I agree that the County needs Gracedale. It was run much better by Premier Management Group. They provided the Administrator and multiple resources for consulting with billing, accounting & nursing administration.
ReplyDeleteRepeated administrative/data entry/typing errors? Inexcusable. Has anyone in Gracedale’s or the county’s administration heard of proofreading and check/double check?
ReplyDeleteI work for the county and I’m staff. The agency nurses they hire make 3 times as much as me and do the same job, have the same title. Most of them are lazy and don’t do what they’re supposed to do so as someone working there for almost 10 years, this is upsetting. It’s why many have left and agency nurses aren’t held to the same standard as Gracedale staff. If we were compensated fairly that would bring so many more hard working nurses/CNAs in the building.
ReplyDeleteWhatever became of the “incentive” plan to bring in more quality nursing and help? I guess advertising on placemats for help at Gracedale didn’t do well.
ReplyDelete