Human Services Director Wandalowski Defensive and Inaccurate About Gracedale

When NorCo Exec Taa Zrinski spoke to County Council last week concerning the one-star rating and provisional license at Gracedale, one of her suggestions was a quasi-cabinet position for the nursing home that reported directly to her as opposed to Human Services Director Sue Wandalowski. Removing Gracedale from Wandalowski's portfolio would enable her to devote more time to many other aspects of Human Services, from CYF to Drug and Alcohol to Crisis Intervention.

After listening to Wandalowski speak to County Council about Gracedale last week, it's pretty clear that she's in over her head when it comes to nursing homes. Objectively it is a real problem, evidenced by a one-star rating and abuse flag from CMS and a provisional license from the state Department of Health. Financially, it's a problem, as evidenced by a Budget Amendment introduced Thursday that allocates $7 million in taxpayer funds to the home.  Despite these poor evaluations from regulatory agencies and declining revenue at the home, Wandalowski did her best to minimize the problems. She also was inaccurate at times.   

She started by noting that Gracedale was visited 21 times over the past 10 months (it was actually 22 times over 2025) by the state Department of Health and observed that some homes are lucky to get one visit. She went on to say that the DOH found deficiencies in only 8 of those visits. 

Let's set the record straight about DOH visits at Gracedale and at other county-owned nursing homes. There were 22 DOH visits in 2025, during which time seven deficiencies were found. I've written about them here. Wandalowski was essentially complaining that many of these visits were unnecessary. To the contrary, once a deficiency is found, DOH must return to ensure that it no longer exists. 

Wandalowski complained that many other nursing homes get no attention from DOH and are "lucky" if visited just once. That's untrue. DOH visited an Allegheny County-owned nursing home 18 times in 2025

DOH visited Lehigh County's Cedarbrook 8 times in 2025. That's less than half the visits at Gracedale, but that's because it only had one minor deficiency, a dirty unit. DOH visited Berksheim 11 times in 2025. There were fewer visits to these homes because there were fewer deficiencies. 

Wandalowski also implied that many of the visits to Gracedale are based on unsubstantiated complaints. That's true, but it's also true of other publicly owned nursing homes. Gracedale is by no means the only nursing home victimized by false reports. 

The deficiency found at Cedarbrook, a dirty unit, pales in comparison to a recurring problem of three (not two, as Wandalowski incorrectly claimed) residents who just wander off and are found a mile or two away. It is nothing in comparison to a mentally ill agency nurse who performed an exorcism on a resident for over two hours before anyone notices. Wandalowski made no mention at all of a resident who never should have been admitted because he is physically violent with staff and other residents. Then there's repeated staffing shortages, which has given Gracedale the lowest nursing home care rating among county-owned long-term care facilities in the state. 

While Wandalowski said, "We take every incident seriously and complete thorough investigations," she mischaracterized them in her County Council presentation.

While criticizing DOH for follow-up visits, she did concede that's how the state ensures Gracedale is in full compliance. Given what was going on at the home, it's a miracle that DOH was there only 22 times in 2025. 

Wandalowski also implied that Gracedale's provisional license was related to the agency nurse who performing an exorcism unnoticed for two hours. That might explain the one-star rating. It might explain the red flag, But the provisional license was actually the result of multiple elopements, a point that Council member Dave Holland later clarified. 

Wandalowski wrapped up her presentation by reading some voice mails and an obituary from residents who were happy with the care received. Exec Zrinski praised Gracedale later for the care provided to her mother in '22 or '23. And Council member Kelly Keegan praised the home for care to her grandmother 12 years ago. 

Those anecdotes demonstrate the noble purpose the home serves. But CMS and the DOH relies on facts, not anecdotes, and the quality of care provided is clearly subpar. The census at the home is below where it needs to be to break even for the year as well. And maybe it should stay there until the quality is demonstrably better.