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Reduced Stress


TalonRider

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The last few months have been interesting to say the least.

 

For those of you who don't know, I work for a County owned and operated Nursing Home in southeastern Pennsylvania. When the current set of Commissioners took office, they slowly began down sizing and consolidating different departments. The even sold off one of the County office buildings only to turn around and lease it back. I think the main reason was to get out from under the debt from the purchase incurred by a previous administration.

 

Looking back, the old hospital building should never have been purchased. It was remodeled to accommodate offices, a Nursing Home section, and an Assisted Living space. The Assisted Living lasted about five years before it failed and closed.

 

The Nursing Home section never opened.

 

Earlier this year they turned to us. They started out by sending out a Request for Information (RFI). The Commissioners wanted to see what their options were in dealing with the Nursing Home. Do they keep the Home, turn it over to a Management Company, or do they sell it?

 

An RFP, Request For Purchase, was then done and we were sold for 39 Million dollars.

 

During this time period, it's been hard to maintain a positive outlook on things. Everyone wants answers and they want them now. When I could find out anything that I could pass along to my staff from the Administrator, they wouldn't believe it. It got to the point that I didn't want to deal with people in any form or fashion. Doing this blog entry is probably the longest I've been online for sometime.

 

We're slowly learning things now that matter to people. The County Pension personnel will be coming out to the facility to talk to each person further about their options.

 

If things go as stated by the Commissioners, at the end of the year, I will be losing my job and starting a new one at the same time.

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Talon,  I couldn't like your blog but I understand your need to get your problems off your mind.   It seems you have been very circumspect about much of what you didn't write.   Before the county decided to get out of the nursing home business, did they have anyone from the PA state veteran's commission do an audit to see if they qualified all residents possible for VA assistance as well as some direct assistance from the VA?   Same thing for Medicaid.   There are many federal dollars that could help.  It seems that government at all levels seems to be abandoning its responsibilities to the oldest, the disabled and the poorest in this country.   A kinder, gentler, country we have not yet become.

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I agree with Daddy.  You seem in acceptance of the situation, and that is good,  But, the the downfall here is so not needed. America has reached an all time low for supporting their geriatrics.  As a whole it's very depressing and non acceptable, but we can't do anything about it.  Hope you new job is great for you.

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During the RFI, there were several groups that came thru on a tour of the facility. As to who those groups were, I don't know.

 

The changes are all due to the same reason for most branches of the government, debt. Montgomery County is the second richest county in the state and property taxes haven't been raised in several years which of course means there's less money coming in than is needed.

 

When it comes time to work on our budgets, we've made all the cuts we've been able to do and asked to do by the Commissioners in office at the time. It looks good on paper until after the first of the year when other government agencies announce their reimbursement rates for the year. When that happens, then the County has to cover our short fall.

 

The company that is buying the facility, own several different facilities in Philly and thru out Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.

 

We do know that our wages won't be changing. We will be able to carry over up to 15 vacation days over into the new company so that we can take paid time off instead of waiting a year, as most companies do when you start with them.

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UPDATE: We are now learning more information and things are starting to take happen. Someone was in to go over the Health benefits, which I thought was a waste of time as they were still in negotiations with IBC. The examples they gave us was for Aetna.

 

They will be in again this week for more sessions. One of the things that we will be doing is filling out application, just a formally for the PA Department of Health.

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Another Update: The change over has been put on hold for now. Testing was done on the underground tanks last week and there was a failure. I don't know which tank it was as we have tanks for the fleet of vehicles used and a tank for fuel for the boilers. From what I've heard, they are going to have to dig to see if a tank is leaking.

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