At Thursday night's meeting of NorCo Council, Human Services Director Sue Wandalowski suggested that the Gracedale's provisional license might be because the state Department of Health is still considering the facility's "plan of correction" for inadequate nursing care. And it's true that Gracedale does have the lowest nursing care rating of all 14 county-owned homes. But that's not why it has a provisional license. Newly elected Council member Dave Holland, who once was part of the Gracedale management team, had a couple of "clarifications", as he politely termed it, to what Wandalowski said.
Holland, who had the documents in front of him, said that the provisional license was issued because of "one of the elopements. That ended up in the J, which is the highest level of deficiency, when there was the elopement from the facility and the things that, you know, that were related to that ... ."
Elopement, as the word is used in nursing home jargon, refers to a situation when a resident leaves a nursing home unsupervised and under circumstances that can pose significant risks to his safety. It happens when a home lacks the proper protocols or sufficient staff. It falls under the "immediate jeopardy" (IJ) category, and when it exists, state regulators will increase their scrutiny of the home because it could result in very serious consequences.
Holland also noted that though information about nursing homes is readily available online, there is a lag. There is a lag of 90 days on the CMS nursing home compare webpage. The DOH website is a little better, but it has a 41-day lag.
This means that the public will be unaware of a serious deficiency until 41 days after it occurred. He requested that Gracedale notify County Council in real time whenever a deficiency is found at the home.
Wandalowski said she'd make them available.
Extensive article about Gracedale in the Morning Call today. Supposedly the facility was already cited in 2026 but that citation was not disclosed or discussed at the most recent council meeting., was it? If not, it would appear there’s a lag time already in communication, Tara. It’s easy to find the clarifications on what constitutes a provisional license but apparently it looks good to have David Holland clarify this information now. Probably those who voted for him are shaking their heads in approval. Gracedale appears to be in deep do do
ReplyDeleteA foreign flower called common sense may be planted in NORCO's garden.
ReplyDeleteThe jewel of Northampton County!
ReplyDeleteSo what does that mean to ratings when that scumbag agency nurse impaired the patient's airway, and a patient had to call 911 while staff stood cowering?
ReplyDeleteContributed to one star rating with abuse notation. Tara has moved on to warehouses now instead. Does Northampton County truly realize who they have voted in to be the executive? She has no clue, folks.
ReplyDeleteOne question:
ReplyDeleteWhere did the yearly IGT funding of about $2 million per year go?
I am unable to answer that very good question. According to a management response in the latest CAFR, the county was shorted $8.5 million of IGT money in 2023 and I do not know what the IGT was in '24 or '25. Will try to find out.
DeleteThanks for looking into it. It was a major program supporting Gracedsle and saving county taxpayers millions.
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