Before he left, former NorCo Council member John Brown predicted that the County would be asked this month to contribute between $10-15 million in taxpayer funds so that Gracedale could balance its books for 2025. In her first report to County Council, Exec Tara Zrinski conceded that a contribution would be needed.
Tonight, a Budget Amendment is being sought and it includes Gracedale. The supporting documents are not yet posted so it's unclear how much Gracedale will need. We'll know tonight.
In addition, Council will be provided with updates on open concerns about the nursing home, which now operates with a CMS rating of just one star (much below average) and a provisional license.
In my view, the county has failed to make long-range plans for the home. It still packs residents four to a room. Since the onset of COVID and the mass resignations, it has failed to recover staffing and is overly reliant on outside nursing care. The problems are summarized quite nicely in a comment someone anonymously made yesterday:
"Gracedale situation is critical. A management company is your best bet however be prepared this won't happen overnight. The staffing problem is such the census should be cut and that likely won't happen. Cedarbrook many years ago closed a wing and made it into I independent living. When staffing got low other units were temporarily closed. They had a long term plan for a new wing in the works for 20 years that is now happening. Council received letters outlining the problems years ago and ignored them. Brown listened and actually started making improvements but lost the election. Gracedale can't come back from this unless big changes are made by management with experience. May I also add although not popular the unions in nursing did not help the attitudes and poor decision making. Don't get me wrong there were many devoted staff who cared deeply about their residents as I'm sure there still are. This is not an easy situation to solve and will take years of commitment. The buildings are old with little investment in making them marketable in today's world. They do take people no one else will but that has led to their problems as easily seen in the provisional license status. Secured separate units for behavioral issues must be considered if they are to continue to take these residents. Staffing adjustments also need to be made. Running a home on basically agency staff is a disaster waiting to happen. I feel badly about the present situation, but I can say I personally tried to help and despite it all no one wanted to hear anything, but what they wanted to hear. And here we are."
Just the start of a defective budget. Time to make changes at the top.
ReplyDeleteThe long-range plan should be to sell it before it gets even worse, if that is possible. I've heard on this blog many people say that gracedale is not a fiscal burden to NORCO citizens. That is just a blatant lie.
ReplyDeleteThose comments are completely correct but there’s one exception; namely, Lamont McClure, was the one who hired a newly licensed administrator (Jennifer Stewart King) a Gracedale employee and allowed the Premier contract to expire. That was the beginning of the downfall for Gracedale. It was and still is difficult to watch the downward spiral of that once great facility. No one would listen (as stated in the above comments) it appears because Lamont and even people on this blog stated how things were getting better. Millions spent on a daycare (guess it’s open but how successful is it?) and it continued to spiral downward and it still is. Does anyone understand how serious a provisional license is for Gracedale? You need a trained, skilled administrator and team to even begin to assess this disaster but Gracedale had that and apparently “chased them away” by not working with them. Agreed that no one would listen then and since then. This mess clearly is Lamont’s supported by those who supported him (and who now voted for Tara). If she doesn’t even know what MA pending is (guess she mispronounced this recently) Gracedale is doomed.
ReplyDelete6:47, I believe the decision to remove Premier, combined with COVID, is what led to the crisis at Gracedale. The real reason Premier was removed was NOT bc it was too expensive. McClure though the county could do better in-house. And Jennifer Stewart-King, his choice as Administrator, is one of those rare people who actually does care about the elderly. I believe there are quite a number of employees at Gracedale who care very much about the residents, who actually take them home and who love them. That was a big shock to me when I visited the home on one of its volunteer appreciation days. But I do think it is a calling, very much like the priesthood, and it is hard to find people like that. I believe Premier, combined with people like Jennifer King, is the best way to save that home. We need people who know what makes Gracedale tick combined with people who know the nursing home industry and understand the trends. I do not expect Lamont McClure, Tara Zrinski or any member of Council (except Holland) to understand the ins and outs of nursing homes or the industry.
DeleteRight now the home needs a county contribution. That is going to come from real estate taxes, which provide the county about $101 million a year. I am sure most of us would be willing to incur a tax hike to help pay for this home, given its noble purpose, so long as it is run well by caring people.
The attempts to diminish both the elopements and the exorcism nurse are discouraging bc they fail to address a lot of the management faults that led to them.
Clearly, we need to do better.
Tara was on Council when McClure did this and never raised any concerns. You should also mention that upon taking office Lamont immediately fired the DON (an experienced highly qualified former Cedarbrook employee) at the behest of the union boss. How did that work out?
DeleteAgain, Bernie, we disagree on who left and why. A newly licensed administrator is not equipped to
Deletemanage a facility the size of Gracedale and Jen clearly wasn’t up for the task no matter how caring you say she was. She evidently took her orders from Lamont since she wouldn’t have had that position without him. Just visiting Gracedale does not make one an expert on it, Bernie.
1016. Thank you. I tried.
DeleteThis writer is 100% on point. The behavioral issue residents are scattered about on all floors and units, leading to chaos everywhere while tended to by agency people who have NO IDEA who is who and what their needs are, except for a readout they may or may not bother to study. Many identify residents by actually checking the ID bracelets residents may or may not wear, as some remove them or are attached to their wheelchairs they may not be in.
ReplyDeleteMany questions :
ReplyDeleteWhere is the IGT money that Gracedale had been receiving by combining funds with other county owned homes?
What funding for Gracedale program support has the executive put forth?
Who on council has some oversight as liaison for Gracedale and its problems?
If the council and executive move millions from the general fund to Gracedale, which programs will be affected financially and is it legal?
Since the Exorcism is really the cause of the Red tag, questions need to be asked ? Where is the nurse who had the psychotic break ? What is the current status of the criminal prosecution ? Why didn’t Upper Nazareth Police respond to the first two 911 calls ? Why on the third call was the officer so nonchalant that he had the time to stop and “check his look in the mirror?”
ReplyDeleteImmediate jeopardy did it. Another event!
DeleteGracedale is reliant on Agency staffing for two reasons and two reasons alone. First, John Brown asked his private management company to not fill 300 jobs at Gracedale. They complied. McClure was filling those jobs when the pandemic struck. Then they couldn’t be filled thereafter due to the next reason. Second, Covid changed nursing in LTCF. Nobody wants to be a nurse in a nursing home anymore.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone ever consider contacting prior Gracedale Administrators, County Executives and activists at Gracedale (volunteers etc.) and ask them for their thoughts on what the problems are at Gracedale. There is no doubt in my mind that most of these problems can be traced back to WAGES. You screw your employees and they leave. It's WAGES WAGES WAGES idiots.
ReplyDeleteThe other county owned nursing homes were a part of a program with Gracedale’s. Any one of them could have been contacted by Northampton County administrators to ask for suggested help in areas of concern.
DeleteWe've had such incompetent people in positions where a difference could've been made.
ReplyDeleteYou have incompetent people all over the county heads. I know this is about gracedale but Tara has kept all of Lamont heads. The only new people are for people who quit.
DeleteThe biggest change Tara should make is get rid of HR director and her little two cronies. You want to see a change in the county employees moral do that.
Next this falls 100% on Lamont he saw it coming and got out. Lamont knows he doesn't have a shot in hell to win. But Tara will bring him back on board
IMHO, the bigger question here is why McClure, Zrinski, and who knows else should be allowed to get away with burying this until after the election? More sleazy politics.
ReplyDeleteI hate politics and most politicians. They are not civil servants, they are whores feeding on the public trough.
The elopments are not being minimized. Both of these gentlemen belong in a State Hospital- not a nursing home. But, we don’t have enough State Hospital beds. So, they get dumped at Gracedale. What’s unfair is trying to blame Morton for it !
ReplyDeleteTo 12:41 - unfortunately, you cannot move the blame to the state. It has been admitted by employees here that the families were given the door access codes and the “stupid families” shared them. It is commonly understood that you do not share codes with any visitor in a nursing home. Hopefully this message is read by somebody that runs the nursing home. You can receive an immediate Jeopardy deficiency for merely sharing the door code with visitors without there even being an elopement - this is all Nursing Home education 101. It has also been indicated that the supervision that was supposed to be with the resident left without a replacement. That is also on the management of the facility. Mistakes happen in every facility, good and bad alike. None of them are perfect. How you respond to the mistakes and the systems you have set up, determines your overall performance and reputation with the regulatory bodies. We are at the point that the regulatory bodies are crucifying the facility because they don’t believe the systems are in place.
DeleteLooks like a $7 million Gracedale CC.
ReplyDeleteAlso let’s stop giving management positions to people who are friends or have a connection with someone. Certain people have been given offered or given management position who are not qualified for the position, that has happened in different departments at Gracedale! It starts at the top!
ReplyDelete