Albany Nursing Home Resolution

[Carol Gerrish]

Yesterday our Faith Matters discussion on Health Care Reform drew perspective from the words of Jesus in Matthew 25: "I was sick and you took care of me ..." And we talked about how our role as followers of Jesus includes action for justice for those in need.

Below is info from Steve Layne ... our consideration and prayer are needed now for a local decision that affects people in Good Shepherd's neighborhood. Imagine 200+ elderly people, many with dementia and Alzheimers, who would probably be shipped out of state. Steve told us when patients with similar conditions were moved from Ann Lee Home to the current nursing home (just down the road) many died ... change is something that these people can't deal with.

Please consider what Steve has to say and take action by calling or emailing a county legislator today.

From Steve Layne ([e-mail])

Today I attended Faith Matters and the topic was Health Care. At the end, Dorothy Everin was asking me questions on the future of Albany County Nursing Home. The discussion spilled over and continued with Mike and Carol Gerrish, Marilyn Graver, Keith Kelley and Dorothy.

On October 13 after 6:30Pm there is going to be a resolution put forth to be voted on. The resolution is below:

AMENDING THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE’S PLAN FOR LONG TERM
CARE IN ALBANY COUNTY TO INCLUDE SPECIFICS AND
BUILDING A NEW NURSING HOME

The County Executive’s current proposal doesn’t include a new nursing home. On January 1, 2010 he will begin closing and sending the 231 residents to other counties or states. These 231 residents are all hard to place and will most likely be shipped out of the area.

As of last Friday, I spoke with the Discharge planner from Albany Med and she said there were only 5 Bed available in other nursing homes in the area. She would be forced to place people from the area into Massachusetts. In the last two years over 1400 residents were place out of Albany county and 200 of them were placed out of State. This numbers came directly from the Health Department.

Another fact is the cost to build a new Nursing home facility is 90% reimbursable(50 Federal/40 State).

Would you be able to send an email to members of Good Shepherd asking them to call their legislature(representative)in support of this resolution. If they are not sure who their Representative they may call me and I will let them know or due to the location of Good Shepherd their representative would be Carl Zeilman – 518-221-6989 or email [e-mail]


Here are some others:

Ryan Horstmyer – 428-1177 or 221 5139 Email [e-mail]

Lucille McKnight 463-9883 Email- [e-mail]

Christopher Higgins -320-8580 Email – [e-mail]

This is time sensitive due to the vote being held on Tuesday October 13 after 6:30 PM so we need to act quickly.

Thank you for your consideration!

Steve Layne
783-8279

Web site for Agenda
http://www.albanycounty.com/uploadedFiles/20091013-LegAgenda.pdf

[Kathleen Crouse]

Thanks for posting this, Carol. I have emailed and will call today. Kathy Crouse

[John Knarvik]

Carol, thanks for posting this and getting some more interest from those who weren't at the faith matters discussion on Sunday. I contacted Carl Zeilman to let him know of my support as pastor of a congregation that has had many parishioners who have been cared for at the home. I liked the letter to the editor in the TU yesterday:
County homes have high quality

First published in print: Monday, October 12, 2009
Albany County Executive Michael Breslin stated in his Oct. 4 commentary, "We can do better than offer facilities of the last resort," that he has been working with local nursing home operators to dedicate beds for our "hard to place" residents in their facilities.



More than 180 Albany County Nursing Home residents are considered "hard to place" by other nursing homes. These are the same nursing homes that originally refused to take our current residents (or put then on never called back waiting lists).
During the last two years, 200 residents have been shipped out of state, revealing the lack of capacity, inability or lack of interest of these private, profit-driven facilities in caring for the county nursing home's current and future populations.

County nursing homes have a higher level of public accountability, oversight and quality of care; are better staffed, better trained and generally have more dedicated and consistent long-term staff, according to a Center for Government Research report, "County Nursing Home Facilities in New York State."

A recent state Health Department report projected a shortfall of 69 beds in Albany County in 2016, even with a Berger Commission recommendation for building a 250-bed nursing home.

The safety net of a new county-run nursing home, as part of a comprehensive state of the art campus that addresses a continuum of care, is a rational solution that will serve Albany County's elderly infirm, disabled and destitute.

ReneÈ Barchitta

ACNH Core Family Council

Albany


Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=851925&c...

[Carol Gerrish]

Posting this update from Steve Layne:

To All:

The resolution passed with 36 votes for and 2 votes against the building of a new nursing home. It was a long debate tonight we didn’t get home until after 10:00PM. Thank you all for you support and putting the word out.

Steve

Also, Times Union story can be found here: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=852665&c...