Monday, February 8, 2010

Closing of Skilled Nursing Unit Informational Meetings

The general public is invited to a meeting with River Hospital officials to be held this Thursday 2/11/10 5 pm at the Village Community Rooms.  A second meeting  with the River Hospital was scheduled at 6:30 pm at the Bonnie Castle Recreation Center, but has been canceled due to a conflict of schedules.


The conflict was with a previously scheduled meeting on the same evening at 6:30 pm at the Town Office.  This meeting is with the group Concerned Citizens.  Mrs. Nellie Taylor and other members of this group will be present to share information and  to rally support for the nursing home.


My plans are to attend both meetings and record them.  Then post the audios for those who can not make the meeting[s].  However, this is not your excuse to avoid going to either meeting.  To be truly informed, both meetings are equally important to attend.  


We all believe that it takes a community to raise our children. Is it not just as important for a community to care for the elderly?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jim, you make sure they all know you're taping the meeting.
Some questions I'd like to hear asked...
Why does it take 40-44 employees to keep track of 27 non critical patients?
You don't even get service like that on the first class deck of the QE2!
I go up there all the time and only see two or three staff actually doing anything. Multiply that times three shifts and coverage on days off, you get 10-12, plus someone to cook and clean, deliver food, etc. So let's say 20 employees,tops. Eliminate 20 salaries and there's your 300 large just in savings.
Now, what's with a CEO? Fire him and another dozen non-essential pencil pushers with fancy titles, like;
Director of Development, and his/her executive assistant.
Assistant Director of Progress, Past and Patient Geneology, plus her assistant.
Office of Management Priorities. Gotta be at least three in that office, Two thinkers and a tie-breaker.
Emergency Management Director, It's a hospital folks, it's supposed to be all about emergencies!
Management Relations Specialist, deals with non existant unions.
There is another Six-eight hundred thousand saved.
Eliminate all River Hospital Foundation salaries too. They're not squeezing enough money out of the rich, so they're not doing their jobs.
This is all right out of thin air, and already we've saved about a million dollars.
Also, why do they have a billing department employing about ten or twelve people if no one pays?
Cut the bloated non-medical staff and you won't need a CEO, just a manager for maybe $50,000 a year. Or better yet, have the Doctors run the place while they are not busy.
Don't even ask my opinion about the new buildings no one wanted or needed.
My resume is in the mail....
J.TICK


Get rid of them too.

jim cummings said...

Why would there be a problem with me audio taping either meeting? There is only a problem if someone is hiding something from the public.....

Anonymous said...

I was hoping for a video as well.

Anonymous said...

Elder care is extremely important. When I was trying to find placement for my mom years ago, the only place I could get her into was Cedars in the Burg. They have since moved into the other facility and have closed down. That was a 45 minute drive for me, while my father lie dying in my living room. Every time I needed to visit my mom, I had to try and scour the area for someone to come stay with my father. As an only child and with my husband, myself, and both of my children employed full-time, it was an awful experience. My mother was not a cooperative nursing home candidate and they really did not want her where she was staying. I tried to find alternative solutions but bringing her home to stay with us, as well as taking care of my termianlly ill father was not an option. It was the worst experience of my life. The shortage of nursing home/elder care is a problem that is only going to get worse. When we lost the T.I. Adult Home, people suffered. Now, we are going to lose the SNF? Maybe the hospital tried to get too big too fast. It happens. Closing down the SNF seems very extreme. My parents died 6 weeks apart. One of my last memories of my mother were her begging me to bring her home with me to live and promising me that she would be good. She died hours later. Our parents need places to live out the latter years of their lives in comfort and with love. Something needs to be done, and done quickly.