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NURSING HOME REFORM NEWSLETTER

Oct. 27, 2005


MR. SMITH GOES TO FRANKFORT

Much to our displeasure, Mr. Smith – in the form of Charles L. "Larry" Smith of Louisville – has indeed gone to Frankfort as the new state long-term care ombudsman. Our displeasure is not over Mr. Smith, who in fact seems like a very nice person eager to succeed, but over the fact that he is a political hire. He succeeds John Sammons who was a merit system employee. We wanted to keep the position a merit system job. But the state nursing home ombudsman is now a political appointee who is wide open to the whims of the nursing home industry. Why are we concerned about this being a political appointment? Because the nursing home industry is a heavy contributor to the political campaigns of Frankfort officeholders. We would be just as upset if this were a Democratic administration where all this is happening. The nursing home industry doesn’t care whether it’s Democrats or Republicans in power in the state capitol. They treat all of them the same way – gaining influence with money. As we all know, the nursing home industry has plenty of money and they don’t mind using it to get their way. Now we will always wonder whether something is being done to help nursing home residents or the profit-hungry nursing home industry.

WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?

Dr. James Holsinger is secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services where the state long-term care ombudsman is located. Here is Dr. Holsinger’s side of the controversial appointment: "I ended up going the non-merit (that’s what bureaucrats call a political appointment) route in order to bring on board a person who is qualified to be the state long-term care ombudsman. We looked inside but could not find a qualified person….By filling this position at the division director level, the position has been elevated at least two, if not three levels, from where it has been in the past." It is true, as Dr. Holsinger says, that the position was put way down in the cabinet organizational chart in a cabinet reorganization a couple years ago. Insiders say that they are attempting now to fix the problem they created. We objected when the reorganization was announced that the long-term care ombudsman’s importance and influence was being minimized. So we are happy that the political appointee will at least have better ranking in the cabinet.

MR. SMITH TALKS

The new state ombudsman is a genial 59-year-old Louisvillian who for the past year has worked as an ombudsman in the Louisville district nursing home ombudsman office. He is enthusiastic about some new initiatives that he will announce to his district ombudsmen next week. "Contrary to rumors," he said, "people are going to be totally surprised at the changes we make. The program is being significantly strengthened." Mr. Smith does not consider his new job a political appointment. "The term is misleading," he said. "It has to do more with the limits of the role. I have no political zilch or contacts. They didn’t even ask me my party registration." He is in fact a registered Democrat. He also is a graduate of Belmont University in Louisville with a elementary and secondary teaching certificate and has a master’s degree in education from South Seminary, also in Louisville. He will be paid $68,200 a year, a bit higher than the top of the scale for this job as a merit position.

GIVE HIM A CHANCE

"Let’s get together in six months," the new state long-term care ombudsman said, "and I guarantee you that you will be excited at the things we have done." I hope he is right. And because what he does so significantly affects more than 30,000 people in nursing homes across the state, we hope he succeeds. Moreover, Dr. Holsinger is a good guy, as we have said before. We think he really does want to do the right thing. However, as hard as he appears to be trying, he has dealt a set-back to the ombudsman program for nursing homes by making the job political. However, we will be pulling for Dr. Holsinger and Mr. Smith to succeed. There is plenty out there to do.

P.S.

And this is not our usual joke at the end…….. Those of you who have followed this issue know that Mr. Smith was not the cabinet’s first choice. The head of the ombudsman agency in Lexington, Kathy Gannoe, was all but hired. Then, we believe, it was realized that her son is an aide to Gov. Fletcher and with all that is going on with hiring in this administration they did not want to add the appearance of nepotism to the mix of negative daily news reports.

MORE LATER...

We will have a more complete newsletter for you in a couple of weeks, but we wanted you to know right away about the developments on the important position of state long-term care ombudsman. It affects every person in every nursing home in Kentucky so it is important for us to watch what happens on it closely, and we promise you that we will.

Bernie Vonderheide
KENTUCKIANS FOR NURSING HOME REFORM
Tel: (859) 312-5617