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.
It’s time for Executive and Council to take action and reach out to neighboring county nursing homes or successfully managed homes and ask for help. If they can see and borrow any practices that can help,
ReplyDeletethey should. They all took an oath to serve and keep this county and Gracedale safe, so do what is needed, and stop talking about it.
Or they can reach out to CCAP which still has 2 associate member vendors that actually manage nursing homes! Tara and Sue just need to put out an RFP/RFQ and have Council award a contract. Then they need to back off and let the experts run the place.
DeleteThe HR director was and is not qualified to run a nursing home. She was put in a no-win position. Don't blame her for being defensive, but she could at least have her facts together, so it does not look like she is trying to hide something. Her actions put into question her integrity about her other duties.
ReplyDeleteIt is high time for the exec and council to actually do their jobs and either fix the problem or eliminate it. This is not going to happen overnight, but years of mismanagement and kicking the can down the road has to stop.
I do not question her integrity. She actually acknowledged that this is not her forte. I do think the anecdotal evidence from Wandalowski or Zrinski or Keegan (12 years ago), while emotionally appealing, is unhelpful bc it is unresponsive to the objective reality portrayed by DOH and CMS.
DeleteI think everyone here demonstrating concern should go volunteer at Gracedale. See for yourself. Make your own judgements. Bernie is biased. He got his ass kicked trying to sell the place, and he’s one that just has to be right. lol. If you don’t want to volunteer, get a job there. There are all kinds of openings in dietary and housekeeping. If you don’t want to volunteer there or work there, go visit your Aunt your greedy Cousin dumped there. Point is, go see it for yourself. You decide.
ReplyDeleteI voted to sell it. The people spoke and elected to keep it. I accepted that and hoped it would work out. Obviously it has not.
DeleteSue Wandalowski chose to poke the bear; namely , the DOH, in her presentation to council. She lamented basically that Gracedale was being picked on with the number of visits from them since apparently no other facility had this amount of visits which resulted, in this situation, the one star rating with an abuse notation (for one year) and a provisional license for six months. She was joined by the duo of Zrinski and Keegan, both of whom just made matters worse in their defense of Gracedale, DOH must conduct the annual survey, must respond to complaints and must do so per regulations. It is clear (and has been clear) that the administration of Gracedale, Norco HR and the previous county executive created this mess. Residents have been abused by staff and in some situations, have abused each other. It is a financial mess as well. No one would listen to John Goffredo and John Brown. The present council, except for Lori, Tom and David, have no idea what to do.
ReplyDeleteSomebody on Council needs to ask questions in public about these incidents. The only way to know if they are the fault of Michelle Morton, or isolated incidents more in keeping with the complex nature of some of the issues these residents have. Remember with people who elope, you can’t chain them to the bed. You can’t pharmaceutically restrain them, so your options are limited.
ReplyDelete"isolated" ..."complex" ... "limited." These are the defensive words used from someone unwilling to recognize that a serious problem exists and there need to be changes. One change should be a professional management team in charge. Another is being more selective in admission. If someone has a propensity to get violent, don't take him. If someone is supposedly an escape artist, don't take him. Let the state take him. There are state-run nursing homes. Why put yourself in this position that actually ruins the quality of life for other residents? It's incredibly dumb.
DeleteThere are state run psychiatric facilities but I don’t think there are state run nursing homes in PA.
DeleteThere are seven state-owned nursing homes in Pa.
DeleteWhat are they?
DeleteAren't the state-owned homes just for veterans?
DeleteCertainly not all of them. South Mountain Restoration Center specializes in people with severe psychiatric illness. The other six might be for veterans.
DeleteThe 7 million is almost exactly what’s outstanding in what’s called Medicaid Pending. It takes Medicaid at least 180 days and more like 365 days for Medicaid to reimburse for care that’s being provided today. It’s more of a loan, than a contribution. Here’s the rub the County has an ordinance that requires money put into Gracedale stays In Gracedale. Council needs to repeal that Ordinance, so it can get its money back when the Medicaid money come in.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for that ordinance is that, back when Gracedale made a profit, the county used its surplus to fund other operations. No, what goes to Gracedale should stay there. It is always in dire need of capital improvements. Also, for two years in a row, the county has out money into the home. It does not take two years to get reimbursed. It is losing money and will lose money for the foreseeable future.
ReplyDeleteShe’s right to be defensive. But, all abusers just want their victims to shut up and take it. The Exorcism needs Council to publicly question what happened. Why didn’t the Upper Nazareth police department respond to the first 2 911 calls ? I don’t believe the police have the discretion not to respond. Other questions need to be answered. Is it true nobody checked on what was happening during the alleged psychotic break of the Exorcist as you keep repeating here ? And, many other questions.
ReplyDeleteYou are raising a red herring and know you are doing so. I previously posted the arrest warrant affidavit of probable cause, which shows that UNT police responded very promptly to the 911 dispatch. My understanding is that, when 911 gets a call from a Gracedale resident, it first contacts Gracedale to ensure it is a real 911 matter. That is what prompted an agency charge nurse to get off her ass and actually find out what was happening with a nurse who was allowed to remain in one room for two hours. You are trying to shift blame instead of looking at your own problems.
DeleteLet's remind everyone that approximately 75% of voters voted to keep Gracedale county owned when asked on a ballot and the new county executive and council better figure out a way to make it successful. Maybe everyone should stop shitting on it and let the new CE and her administration figure it out.
ReplyDeleteThat was years ago. Tara has no clue. She thinks a cat will solve the problem.
DeleteNo nursing home, including Berks or Lehigh, is perfect. They all have issues and bad outcomes from time to time. If you think it is perfect there, I have a bridge to sell you. Certainly Gracedale has some positive qualities and likely more residents have positive outcomes. It’s not all escaping residents and exorcisms. Truly, the difference between Gracedale and a place like Berks or Cedarbrook is a matter of how they respond to bad outcomes with followup and new systems. Sometimes it is a bad egg and you need to go to firing the employee. Bad eggs and bad things happen anywhere, even great places. Berks had the sick nurse photographing a corpse in the news a few years back. Fellowship, the best nonprofit home in the region, had the aide who hit a dementia resident. The issue at Gracedale is not necessarily that things happen from time to time. It is the followup. Resident escaped and no system was put in place before more elopements subsequently occurred. Mental health nurse performs exorcism and it happened over 2 hours as systems at the home allowed it to happen that long without question. These are correctable incidents but will take an active and engaged consistent leadership team to change the culture.
ReplyDeleteNursing staff allowed a mentally incompetent resident to sign himself out with no medications. Immediate jeopardy.
DeleteBefore Gracedale drains the county from lawsuits and incompetence start looking to sell the place. You have been given enough time and have failed.
ReplyDelete12:29, When I advocated the sale of Gracedale, and I do not advocate it now, I identified myself. Now we have sale advocates who are unwilling to even identify themselves. All that cowards like you accomplish is to give ammo to people who demean all criticism aqnd attempts to improve the home as a hidden push to sell. Identify yourself.
DeleteIf this were located in Bethlehem there would be a study to find answers on what to do.
ReplyDeletePlease explain how we can be fiddling around with redistricting when the petition period starts in a week.
ReplyDeleteTo add insult to injury, the elections division has refused a request to provide the proposed redistricting plan.
This is the typical bs that has come to be routine in Northampton County.
I see that all of this has gotten into the Morning Call today. Only Northampton County will consistently bash its own senior home. You don’t see other counties doing this to their homes. It’s a shame. It’s not all a crap storm. There’s plenty of good care that is given to county citizens at the home. Does Lehigh County bash its home every time a mistake is made there? It doesn’t appear to be the case. I’m sure it’s not the case in other counties.
ReplyDeleteUm, when a publicly owned nursing home has one star, a red flag for abuse and a provisional license, it is frankly criminal that the Morning Call has taken so long to notify the public. That is the purpose of a newspaper or news source. It's sad you want to brush this under the rug. The best disinfectant is always sunshine. We don't need to hear stories about how great Gracedale was to your grandmother 30 years ago. We need to make changes so it's great to the grandmothers who are there now. We need people with knowledge of the nursing home industry and its trends at the helm.
DeleteCant just flick a switch, close a facility down with patients, families, nurses, personnel, and others without causing heartbreak and discomfort to many. The physical structures and mechanical needs are another discussion that must be reviewed, Worth it to assemble county leaders, meet with Nursing home resources and begin the process of righting the ship once and for all, the correct and responsible way.
DeleteIf not attempted, Gracedale will become just another statistic.
Bernie, what is criminal is you covering for Lamont for 8 years. He broke the home. Now Tara needs to fix this Gracedale mess. Will you provide her at least a year to remedy it? Or is a weekly Gracedale bashing in your plans?
DeleteLamont wasn’t alone in this, Tara was on council and was controller so she had past information about the goings on. The Gracedale issues were there for years, but not properly accounted for by managers and administration.
DeleteNot one council person gets a pass on this, nor should Tara, they knew but kept shoving the problems away.
How does the Director of Human Services dodge accountability for this? What were her efforts and recommendations over the past eight years? If this is not her forte then she has no business playing the role.
ReplyDeleteWandalowski has no forte in any department in HS, not just Gracedale. Completely clueless for all eight years., I, and many other workers, witnessed it firsthand!!
ReplyDelete