|
|
The biggest requirement of being a public servant is that you answer to the people you serve, especially since they are providing your funding through their tax dollars.
Recently, County Council proposed putting out an RFP to do an Operational Assessment of Gracedale which will include a salary study. This is not a new idea. Multiple studies have been done in the past on this very issue with no clear evidence that any of the recommendations were ever implemented.
These studies can cost well into six figures and, if they don’t produce measurable or actionable results, they can only be classified as a waste of the taxpayer’s money.
Gracedale Nursing Home is a public and County-run long-term-care facility. Comparisons to private nursing homes are not appropriate. Private nursing homes have investors and, therefore, put their profits first. Public nursing homes have the luxury of focusing on people. While the first thing a private nursing home might examine about a potential client is the person’s wallet, Gracedale looks at the individual who needs a safe place to live now that they can no longer care for themselves.
Because of this difference, salary comparisons between public and private institutions are often meaningless and an approach only based on market research won’t catch the differences. While the responsibilities of a nurse might be the same, the compensation is very different. Private facilities don’t offer pensions. Most staff are only eligible for a 401K which could lose half of its value in a market shift. Paid Time Off is limited to a few weeks and workers typically don’t have access to Family and Medical Leave (FMLA) which provides staff with up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job-protected time off per year.
Gracedale employees are eligible for a pension plan, medical, dental and vision insurance, and life insurance. Most healthcare employees are also in a union, either AFSCME or the Steelworkers, which gives them collective bargaining power for wages and benefits. Unlike private industry, Gracedale staff enjoy an increase in pay due to their longevity, are entitled to representation during personnel meetings and have the right to a quick review for any workplace safety issues.
Private nursing homes don’t like to take Medicaid patients. Gracedale is paid roughly $220 per resident per day through Community HealthChoices, the new managed Medicaid system in the Commonwealth. The cost to care for a resident is roughly $339 per day. For the bean counters in the accounting department, that’s a $119 loss every day for every Medicaid patient. If your focus is only on the bottom line, you’re not going to want to accept economically disadvantaged patients into your facility and yet, they have to go somewhere. That’s where County-run nursing homes, like Gracedale, come in. We take everyone who requires our services no matter how sick or old or ‘difficult’ they may be. Gracedale is the last rung on the safety net and we are proud to offer this service to the most vulnerable in our communities.
Due to the pandemic, the entire nation is dealing with a hiring challenge right now. Nursing homes were affected more than most industries because they serve the most vulnerable. Recognizing that fact, the County instituted a system for hazard incentive pay for staff working in direct care. So far, we’ve paid over $3.3 million to employees for the risks they faced on the job.
The safety of our residents and staff is important to us and we have acted in accordance with that priority. Northampton County was the first in the Commonwealth to install a negative pressure ward to quarantine COVID-19 positive patients from the general population. We also moved quickly to offer vaccination clinics when the shots became available and worked with AMI to bring in the National Guard on a few occasions to assist and give our staff a well-deserved breather. The Administration at Gracedale has followed all CMS guidelines to keep both our residents and the staff as safe as possible. The Department of Health regularly visits the facility and has issued but a few citations. Gracedale is currently working with with the office of the Auditor General on an audit to make sure Medicaid dollars are being spent appropriately at the facility.
My Administration is moving aggressively to hire more staff at Gracedale. Northampton County will receive $30 million from the American Rescue Plan this year and I’m proposing for half of that to go directly to the nursing home. Twelve million will be used to address nursing care costs, $2 million will go to establishing an on-site daycare center for our employees and $1 million will be used for capital projects.
These past two years have been difficult for staffing in most industries, but especially for long term care facilities. I understand the frustration of our Commissioners on County Council with the problems in hiring at Gracedale, but another wasteful ‘study’ is not the answer.
Information provided to TVL by:
Becky Bartlett
Deputy Director of Administration
Northampton County Government Center
669 Washington Street
Easton, PA 18042
https://www.northamptoncounty.org/
