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NURSING HOME REFORM
NEWSLETTER
May 18, 2005
DATES TO LOOK OUT FOR.
In June, Kentuckians For Nursing Home Reform will have a meeting. Yes, I know we have said there will be no meetings. But we have to have one to recruit a board of directors. We must do this in order to incorporate as a non-profit corporation which we have been wanting to do for some time. If you are interested in being a charter member of Kentuckians For Nursing Home Reform, let me know right away and we will see that you get an invitation to the June meeting. It will be in Lexington……… Then in September we are still hoping that Rep. Jimmie Lee, D-Elizabethtown, and Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville and chairman of the House Health and Welfare Committee will have that "summit" the men have promised to discuss quality staffing standards for nursing homes. We will keep you informed about when this meeting, or meetings, are going to be held so that you can attend if you want to.
THANKS TO ‘KENTUCKY LIVING’ MAGAZINE.
Kentucky Living magazine, published by the state association of rural electric co-ops, carried a
"guest opinion" by yours truly. I have been overwhelmed at the response I have received from this article. No wonder, because the magazine has the largest circulation in Kentucky, about 150,000 subscribers. I have received all kinds of e-mail notes about the poor care encountered in nursing homes. Here’s one of them from a C.N.A. (Certified Nursing Assistant)…..
First I wanted to say thank you all for standing up for our sick and elderly! Something many people try to ignore or forget. I read your article in Kentucky Living.
I have been the low man on the totem pole or C.N.A. for five years now. It was HORRIBLE, but I stayed for the people I took care of.
It was a 64-bed facility. We were lucky to have six C.N.A.s on first shift, three on second, and one on third shift. So you could only imagine how great the care was.
From what I have seen in my five years… There are a lot of things I think the state should change ….
One being the aide-to-resident ratio. It should be against the law for one aide to take care of 32 residents! Which I have done more times then I would like to remember. It wasn’t fair to them or me.
The second being some of the aides they hire… I have seen drug addicts who can’t even take care of themselves come in and try to take care of someone else. And no one says anything to them.
It is too easy to become an aide. I think they should change that. These are people’s mothers, fathers, grandparents, and so on. Not just anybody should be able to take care of them!
Third being the administration… the one I worked for was a joke. Our D.O.N. (director of nursing) had nervous break-downs once a week. Would throw trays at the employees and treat us as if we were the dirt she walked on. And laughed at the residents when it shouldn’t have been done. None of the administration was professional at all… it was sad. The only time they would have anything to do with the residents would be when the STATE was there (inspecting or checking out a complaint).
It is a shame how the sick and elderly are being treated. I have tried to protect the residents that I cared for the best I could. It even got me in trouble many of times. But I still did it and will continue to do so. I just hope my fellow C.N.A.s will do the same!
Name withheld.
What a message…. and we will share it with Kentucky legislators. Like most of the public, legislators know little about what is going on in nursing homes.
GAMBLING ON QUALITY?
Rep. Tom Burch introduced two bills in the last session for slot machines in Kentucky. Part of the proceeds from them would provide a new source of revenue for things like Medicaid and prescription drugs for seniors, he said. How about getting some of that money earmarked for hiring more front-line caregivers in nursing homes, Mr. Burch?….. Former Gov. Brereton Jones is pushing a constitutional amendment for slots at tracks where the money would be earmarked for worthy causes, and he told us that one of those causes could be money to hire more front-line caregivers in nursing homes. The thing we like about his idea is that with a constitutional amendment, the earmarking of the money is hard to change…..By the way, Rep. Burch says slots at racecourses could generate more than $200 million a year. He estimated in a health and welfare committee hearing (he’s the chairman) one time that staffing standards being proposed would cost $20 million a year. H-mmm, is Burch up to something good? Of course, what the good rep forgot is that the increase in provider tax would easily cover the $20 million a year necessary for quality staffing standards. It brings some $55 million more a year in to the nursing homes in Kentucky.
SPEAKING OF QUALITY…
The nursing home industry is at work doing surveys of people who have family in nursing homes. They call them "Quality First" surveys and they are doing them in Kentucky and nationally. If they can get the results of the survey to come out in their favor, look for them to spread it in front of legislators. "Look," they will say. "The families of people in nursing homes think we do a very good job." Of course we know that is not true in most nursing homes, but you know how surveys can be manipulated. One person we heard from said he was surveyed and they asked him how his cousin’s care in a nursing home was. "….My answers were ‘satisfactory’ and ‘they need more help,’ but I am sure the ‘need more help’ was ignored," he said.
RATINGS OF NURSING HOMES.
There are a number of groups and organizations that rate how good, or how bad, nursing homes are. You can go to our web
site and under Links find two of them. A nursing home corporate executive whom I respect points out that they may not be current, however, and therefore can be inaccurate. This is because the nursing home may have corrected its deficiencies. He is right. On the other hand the poor rating of a nursing home may be just continuing a pattern of poor care that shows up when it is inspected. So it is good to look at the facility’s record on past inspections. Taken together, these ratings show that there are many problems in long-term care that constantly need fixing. One of the best ways to improve care is to hire enough people. Not the only way. But one of the best ways. Why don’t state inspectors look more closely at the role sufficient staffing plays in good care?
SHOP TALK.
The UK public relations office (my old stomping ground) has recently spawned some real sharp up-and-comers on the Frankfort scene, directly and indirectly. The governor’s new director of communications is Carla Blanton, wife of Jay Blanton, UK director of public relations. I almost hired Carla one time when she was getting started and it is my (and UK’s) loss that I didn’t…. And the new director of communications in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services is Vikki Franklin, who started her p.r. career in the UK p.r. office. Her husband is director of TV services for the UK College of Agriculture. Kind of UK month at capitol communications offices.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH...
This is about legislators and state officials scrambling to fix an obvious problem. With the increase in the provider tax the little nursing homes paid in big time and got nothing back. It was fixed by legislation in the 2005 session. Here is what one observer of the legislative process said about the official signing of the bill into law giving them relief:
"Bernie, Just thought I would write you to see how you are doing and thank you again for all your help on this. It was pretty funny to see how many people showed up to have their picture taken with the Governor at the signing. The very same folks who told me time and time again that it was absolutely impossible to fix this problem were standing there smiling like a possum, eating you know what, shaking hands and acting as happy as they could be! It was fairly nauseating, however I understand now it is all a part of the political games that get played everyday. Again, thank you for the kind words and all the help. Keep in touch and let me know if you need anything." – Shelley Laneve RN, director of nursing for Shemwell Nursing Home in Providence, KY. And quite a gal, we might add. A real fighter for what is right.
DON’T FORGET…
MORE THAN 30,000 PEOPLE IN NURSING HOMES IN KENTUCKY NEED US. THEY ARE KENTUCKY’S FORGOTTEN PEOPLE.
Sincerely,
BERNIE VONDERHEIDE
KENTUCKIANS FOR NURSING HOME REFORM
P.S.
I couldn’t come up with anything funnier than a true story: This is Older Americans Month nationally. In Kentucky, the state bureaucrats have come up with a theme for it – "Celebrate Long-Term Living." We just about died laughing at that one. They’re going to have a hard time finding anyone who can celebrate long-term living, especially in nursing homes.
Funny.
HERE’S HOW TO CONTACT US...
e-mail: KyNursingHomeReform@yahoo.com
web site: http://www.KyNursingHomeReform.org
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