Last week, I told you that Gracedale nurse Octavia Lasha Robinson, age 42, (an LPN employed by an outside agency) was arrested by Upper Nazareth Tp police and charged with abuse of a care-dependent person (i.e. resident) by striking, shoving, kicking and threatening this person. She was also charged with simple assault and harassment. According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Officer Zach Dugan, he was dispatched at approximately 3:22 am. It is unclear whether the "caller" is a resident or a Gracedale staffer. He was told that the defendant had been in the victim's room for two hours and refused to leave. When he entered, he personally witnessed the defendant shoving her fingers in the victim's mouth, saying the demons needed to come out. He also saw blood on the victim's chest and bedding. He placed Robinson in custody and took her to Lehigh Valley Hospital for an involuntary emergency health evaluation. She obviously was committed, which is why the case was marked inactive. It's active now, but she won't be shoving her fingers into any resident's mouth anytime soon. She's in the county jail.
Robinson was preliminarily arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Alicia Zito on July 3, and cash bail was set at $25,000. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for July 18, 3 pm, before Magisterial District Judge John Capobianco.
On Wednesday evening, Northampton County Council conducted its usual biweekly meeting. At that time, Council could be expected to ask a lot of questions about concerns raised by you in connection with this story. They probably did, too. But it was in an executive session.
Exec. Lamont McClure asked Council for an executive session to discuss personnel matters and possible litigation, which is permitted under the Sunshine Act.
There are numerous concerns about what this nurse was doing alone in a resident's room for two hours without making her supervisors suspicious. Why did the 911 calls come from a resident and not staff? And when 911 followed up with Gracedale supervisors, did they go to the room to see what was going on? As one of you observed, "This LPN refused to leave a resident’s room for two hours while possibly two nurse aides were on the unit who then possibly reported nothing to a house supervisor? That’s where it becomes fuzzy. Where were the unit rounds by the nursing supervisor assigned to the now reported Tower 7? Someone other than the other resident in that room had to have known what was going on and he, she or they did nothing about it (or did they report and nothing was done at the supervisory level?) My heart breaks for this resident and for those staff members at this facility who abhor this type of abuse."
These are personnel issues. If supervisors are found to have been negligent, I am sure action will be taken.
Also, I think you all realize that what this LPN is accused of doing opens up the county to a lawsuit by the resident.
There is potential litigation here.
I doubt we'll know the full story anytime soon, if ever. What I do know is that the county really needs to look at the long term viability of nursing homes. The federal government wants people to age in place, not in some sterile environment that packs them four to a room.
The county owns lots of land at the Gracedale campus. One Council member (I will not name this person) has suggested we at least study the construction of senior homes or apartments that will give residents dignity and independence while taking advantage of home health care. That seems to be a better way to fulfill our moral obligation than hiring outside agency nurses and being dependent on intergovernmental transfers, which will eventually go the way of the do do.
35 comments:
History repeats itself. The never ending Gracedale question arises again, to sell or not to sell, or to hire a professional nursing home management team for its oversight?
They can’t “age in place” as most of them are too sick with Alzheimer’s and Dementia. (And, nobody wants them. Visit on Mother’s Day or better yet Father’s Day if you want to know what heartbreak is.) And, you couldn’t build enough tiny houses to meet half the need, and there is no money anywhere for that. Vargo Hefner’s idea was to try and monetize the building of senior housing at Gracedale to support the home - not supplant it.
We should bail her out and bring her by your place!!
Dumbass
The prison staff should take that LPN Nurse and go to the Courthouse and remove the "demons" from the Council and administration. I can only imagine what they would find.
As an insider who sees up close the daily operation of this facility, in is not the job performed by county nurses and other essential workers here, it is somewhat the failure of unqualified agency employees, and primarily the home's administration. Until this is fixed by putting professionals in charge, instead of just shuffling the present admin around, expect more of the same.
Put me on the jury. I'll make it hurt so bad the county won't forget about this for generations.
Why wasn’t the Exorcist charged with aggravated assault and/or attempted murder ?
Gracedale continues to be a large boil on the count's butt. This latest incident and obvious lack of any controls only makes the boil expand. Time for the county to get out of the dark ages and have an operation to rid itself of the infectious wound before it spreads.
If you paid decent wages, you would get decent help. DO A WAGE STUDY AND SEE WHERE YOU ARE ON THE WAGE SCALE. Then and only then should you hire outside help once you correct the wages. DO THE WAGE STUDY YOU FRICKEN IDIOTS!
The only way we won’t ever know the full and true story is if those involved in this event don’t tell investigators exactly what occurred on that morning and on that unit. Is Gracedale still admitting new residents since the incident? That would be first and foremost for now in addition to removing the involved personnel until it’s determined they are not a risk to any other residents.
Still a lot of digging to
do, Bernie.
Litigation? I doubt much will come of that, as it appears the victim’s close relatives are dead. When my parent was in the hospital, there were many a night I stayed to make sure they were receiving appropriate care. Too many times the ball was dropped. No matter the state of the victim, she was robbed of her dignity by a nut. (I know, not politically correct and I’m supposed to have compassion, but preying on the weak makes that hard.)
You are an idiot, attempted murder WTF is wrong with you?
The major lawsuit is coming, not doubt. The curveball to this is how Lament will spin this to aid his campaign for congress and possibly blame MacKenzie. That seems to be all he's capable of doing anymore. Along the same lines, this is probably the death knell for Giovanni's bid to be County Executive. Lament has probably spoken more with Tzara on how to make Giovanni a bad guy for this for campaign purposes than with council and the solicitor on how to handle this.
Sunshine Act is way too lenient as to what can be discussed in executive session. Executive session was probably more finger pointing than the litigation and personnel issues, anyway.
There are and always will be problems at these homes of last resort. That’s the sad truth.
What happened needs to be investigated. It’s also time for another audit of how clever “elder care” experts manage to shift and hide assets, so families can inherit wealth and still pay a low rate if anything.
Professional and knowledgeable nursing home management should now be in all council discussions. Paying the cost of one lawsuit due to negligence will more than cover the cost of doing the right thing for Gracedale residents and personnel..
They use the litigation or personnel issues to go in the back and scream at each other. I've seen it on other boards.
Dumbass
Because the charges dont fit.
Insider as well. Sadly local government doesn’t hire “qualified” people. They hire political affiliates, friends , etc. A qualified administration, the nursing home would be ran fiscally responsible and operationally accountable. Same issues at Cedarbrook.
“One Council member (I will not name this person) has suggested we at least study the construction of senior homes or apartments that will give residents dignity and independence while taking advantage of home health care.”
And there it is. The typical government response when in a hole. Keep digging.
What you suggest is insanity. There is no “moral obligation” to a chosen few county residents. County ownership of nursing homes is a remnant of a system that made sense 150 years ago.
Follow the lead of 56 other counties in the state that somehow handle their “moral obligation” just fine without owning a nursing home.
It has NOTHING to do with her being agency! Charles Cullen wasn't an agency nurse! We go through more annual training than in-house nurses. We have to do in-house and agency training each year! We don't get benefits, and we come when you need us, or sometimes we struggle to find work! We're given the hardest patients that nobody wants to deal with, and are often mistreated by staff! I suggest you get educated on something before you make statements.
Except you don’t. Agency nurses are terrible to work with and don’t give the same care that in house nurses do.
11:05 -- That's what I said. Learn to read between the lines.
What happened at the nursing home on Sunday morning? Police were called about a sexual assault.
12:43 - I would be very careful to equate the recent happenings at Gracedale with Cedarbrook or any other county nursing home that’s remaining in the state. Have there been exorcisms at Cedarbrook? Have there been unpaid bonuses at Cedarbrook? Has Cedarbrook been unable to account for $2.5M? Is there a combative relationship between Cedarbrook and the Lehigh council? Is the administration at Cedarbrook political affiliates or friends of Armstrong? If it is as bad at Cedarbrook as Gracedale, why is there a huge construction project there with cranes and a large building? Substitute Cedarbrook for Bucks or Berks. Are those counties having difficulties as well in your estimation? Go out further to Delaware County, which just finished a very large renovation at their county nursing home last year. Obviously difficult and sometimes very negative things happen at every single nursing home in the country. It’s people taking care of people. But great things happen at county nursing homes when the Focus is non-political. Everything is political in Norco. It’s one thing to lament the difficulties that Gracedale is having. They can all be fixed, and the county can continue its mission of caring for the unfortunate. As soon as you look outward at others, you have lost the necessity to fix what’s broken inwards.
This event does not define the home. The lpn was responsible and if anyone else did not do the correct thing it will be found and dealt with. Do not use one bad person as your excuse to sell the home. Do that on your points not one horrible act that no one could control. It happens unfortunately everywhere..home care hospitals etc.
I certainly would oppose selling the home over this or any incident. But we need to look at the future. Gracedale was originally established as the county's "poor house" and evolved into a nursing home. I am suggesting that the future of nursing homes appears to be quite murky and that we should study alternative ways to help our aging population in the event that the feds cut reimbursement rates or reduces the intergovernmental transfer grant.
The concept of moving away from traditional long-term care is most appealing. A concept change would be wonderful. I agree we need to look at all options especially as most of us do not want to live in the nursing home environment no matter how good it is. They have trialed on small scale other models. The problem is funding and staffing...as more is needed to keep us in our homes as we age. More money and staff are needed above the cost of nursing homes. Senior housing would also be wonderful and needed but again home care staffing sometimes 24/7 is very expensive and also lacking staff resources. But I like the thought and it has merit. A whole model change is needed
Worked for Biden
sell the place
Selling Gracedale won’t find ‘alternative ways to help our aging population’- the country will just sell it to a for-profit operator who will use the poor residents of the county- because that is who lives there- to make money. They will take what is there now- good solid care with a solid team that operates WITHOUT a profit motive- and look for ‘efficiencies’- cutting social services, cutting food costs, bringing in people who will use shady, worthless interventions- like genomic testing which will bill Medicare millions and operator gets a kickback, cutting environmental services, outsourcing scheduling (which has been a disaster at other homes) and a whole world of things to monetize these poor elderly people. There is not a way to make Medicaid pay more and the Big Beautiful Bill has cut Medicaid even further. The only solution for a for-profit operator is to carve away at what is an already pared-down home. Sure, sell Gracedale. And watch the vultures swoop in.
Bernie, this would be a step in the right direction. What is the real cost to the people of Northampton County and what is re-imbursed by the State and Federal Government to offset the County's cost? What is The Feds through (Medicare/Medicaid) share of offsetting these costs? Why is the County hiring "high paying" outside nursing care that isn't re-imburseable at the same rate as our own employees? The list goes on and on. Do the Fricken wage study to see what is re-imburseable and what the actual costs are and then make a decision. Are we paying medical benefits for Gracedale unions after they retire while we eliminate this tax burden for all our other employees? Do the Fricken Study DUMMY!
I agreewith most of what you said except medicaid and the bill. Cuts people fraudulently using medicaid so more money for our citizens who need it like at gracedale
Retiree healthcare stopped a while ago for Gracedale employees. Maybe bringing it back would keep union nurses there. A pay study will show they are comparable to other nursing homes if you take their entire package into play and if they are compared to similar size and tax based County’s.
By your comments I’m sure you are thinking Lehigh, Bucks or Montco. Northampton County is not apples to apples to those County’s.
When Heckman was Director of Human Services, he wanted to partner with a private company to provide assisted living units, some of which would-be available to those who could not afford the privates. there was more to it but it was shot down. You can ask him.
Not true. I cared for all my patients! I have seen crappy full time staff in most places. Whether your in-house or not, you will find both kinds of nurses on each side.
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