People keep electing them, it ain't devine intervention that keeps them there.

I don't know too much about Glendale, but someone told me last week that if we are looking to place my mom in  a nursing home (which we are), not to put her in Glendale. Again, I have no personal experience with Glendale, so I don't have an opinion either way. It is just what I hear from other people.

You heard right JoAnn, my grandmother was in Glendale for 5 years and after what I've seen I'll will never place my Mom there and will continue to take care of her myself with the help of my wife. Many of the nursing homes are the same way, under staffed and over-worked and the cost per month is very expensive too. With the cost of health-care going up every year I don't know how anyone can afford to place anyone in a nursing home. It may be cheaper to hire a full time aid to care for your loved ones if you can find one.

You are right Shadow. It is very expensive. To place my mom in an assisted living facility is approx. $5,000/month. If we place her in a nursing facility, it is approx. $10,000/mo. They both require a month security. If they are placed in an assisted living facility and they run out of money, they must leave. If they run out of money in a nursing facility, medicaid takes over the cost. But with the state cutting back on medicaid benefits, the private nursing homes are rather reluctant to take people that don't have excellent insurance and/or A LOT of available cash.

The government certainly knows how to take care of it's senior citizens, when you run out of money they just throw you out on the street or if all you have is medicaid they won't take you in the first place. They only want rich people with a lot of money, what a system we have in this country.

I'm not looking for the taxpayers to pay for my mom's care. I am wishing things were more affordable where she could pay her own way. She's not wealthy and she's not poor. She is just stuck in the middle of the economic ladder. We have an aid go in twice a week for 2 hours each day and a nurse that goes in for 2 hours once a week.

My  mom is just very confused. To give you an example: since she went home last year after her heart surgery, she has had channel 64 (Lifetime movie channel) on and has never changed it. She forgot how to use the tv remote. I get a call from her at least once a week after 9pm at night. She will accidentally touch her remote or confuse it with the phone and change the channel, which will get her very agitated since she doesn't know how to change it back. So I have to drive there and fix it for her. It takes a while to settle her back down after that.

My grandmother was also in Glendale. That was almost 30 years ago. It was not a good experience. I haven't been in there since.

Older people who have open heart surgery seem to have the confusion problem and from what I've read it's caused by the heart pump used during surgery. My wife's mother had the same thing happen to her and she had a cable box which she never was able to figure out. I don't mean that the government should pay for the care just keep the cost of health-care down where it's affordable to all. $10,000 a month is a ridiculous amount to have to pay for nursing home care, I've seen the care and it's not worth the money that's being paid for it.

Quoted from Shadow

The government certainly knows how to take care of it's senior citizens, when you run out of money they just throw you out on the street or if all you have is medicaid they won't take you in the first place. They only want rich people with a lot of money, what a system we have in this country.

NYS nursing homes cannot throw out medicaid residents and MUST have a certain percentage of their population under medicaid
if they choose to accept ANYKIND of government funding, ie:building, grants etc............is this rape robbery or right???

however, after the 21 day bed hold....they dont have to take the resident back....and the bed can be let out unless paid for in cash

This is why even with a national healthcare......those with $$$$$$ will make their own......and let me tell ya.....the Illinois
governor will(would have been) very well taken care of and so will Paris Hilton, Tom Cruise,Spitzer, Hillary Clinton etc.......

BTW---assisted living homes have very few regs and can boot one to the road....although this would not fare well in the PR business......

folks who think "hiding the $$" with the kids is good and then spending down....are spending the future generations paychecks.....JMHO

pay what you can straight up and everything will work out fine,,,but, remember, there is no fluffy pillow, satin sheets or golden enema......

Quoted Text

EDITORIALS
No time to be building new Glendale Home

    Counties, including Schenectady, continue to complain, and rightly so, about the high cost of the unfunded mandates the state imposes on them. If the state isn’t going to pay for these, especially as it cuts back on reimbursements and aid in response to the fiscal crisis, then it should keep only the most essential and eliminate the rest.
    But running a nursing home, as Schenectady County does, is not a mandate, nor is it essential. Yet county leaders — namely Legislature Chairwoman Susan Savage, and Legislators Gary Hughes and Brian Gordon — continue to act as if it is, and as if the county had no choice.
    Ignoring the county’s precarious fiscal position, and the state’s disastrous one, they still plan to go ahead with a proposed $51 million, 200-bed replacement for the obsolete Glendale Home in Glenville, which just received approval from the state. They refuse to even consider privatizing the home or getting out of the nursing home business altogether, as other counties, including Montgomery, have been doing.
    The home is needed, they say, and people want it. Glendale provides decent care, and unionized jobs, but is it really necessary? Savage and company argue that it is, because without it, where would Schenectady County’s needy elderly go for skilled nursing care?
    Well, where have those who have been turned away from Glendale over the past year, as the home has downsized to satisfy the Berger Commission, gone? It seems there was sufficient capacity in the system for them. And if Glendale were to close and more people were in need of care, why couldn’t the other six private and non-profit nursing homes in Schenectady County (and if necessary, others in neighboring counties) provide it, adding on to their existing buildings or putting up new ones if necessary?
    Another reason cited by Savage et al. is that private homes won’t take the really tough patients, such as those with Alzheimer’s, mental problems or morbid obesity. Such people account for roughly 10 percent of the population at Glendale.
    Wouldn’t it make more sense for the county to pay the private homes, say, $20,000 extra per year (the annual cost of a nursing home is around $80,000) to take these 20 or 25 patients than to build a new $51 million nursing home? Even if the state picks up a significant share (and Gov. Paterson wants to reduce funding for nursing home construction), the county would still have to borrow many millions, and then pay it back with interest. And it would have to borrow it in the currently frozen credit market, because the state says construction would have to start by next November.
    Even if the state improves Medicaid reimbursement rates, which is normally one of the benefits of building a new home (but here, too, Paterson has proposed big cuts in these and other payments to nursing homes as part of an attempt to save $3.5 billion in health-care costs), an annual subsidy by county taxpayers of at least $5 million would still be required. In fact, the proposed cuts are so severe that nursing homes anticipate layoffs and closures. This wouldn’t necessarily alarm Paterson, since part of his plan is to phase out over five years 6,000 of the state’s 117,000 nursing home beds and replace them with home and community-based care such as.............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00900

WOW! The Gazette actually printed an article that really spoke the truth!!! Althought it all sounds 'misteriously familiar', don't ya think?

But everything they said was 'dead on'. The county should not and must not continue with this plan for the Glendale home. So what is actually at stake here IF they decide to close the Glendale Home? Two words.....UNION JOBS!! That is it in a nut shell. These county, union employees would have to seek employment in the private sector. THAT my friends is the REAL issue! As usual the dems are using the seniors as victims and that the government is the savior! Poppycock!

It's all about union jobs that SHOULD and MUST be privatized!!!

If anyone is interested, go to the site below to compare nursing homes in our area. I used 12306 for a zip code and I used 10 miles for an area. Glendale falls short in comparison to the other nursing homes in that general area. Kingsway faired the best.


http://www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/Home.asp

Quoted Text

CAPITAL REGION
9 nursing homes get lowest rating Glendale Home among area facilities that fared poorly
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    Nine of 31 nursing homes in the Capital Region received the lowest rating on a new federal government five-star ranking system.
    One-third of the one-star nursing homes are in Schenectady County and include the countyrun Glendale Home, Dutch Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and Northwoods Rehabilitation Center. Albany, Montgomery and Rensselaer counties have two of the one-star facilities each.
    The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Thursday posted the new system on its Web site (www.cms.hhs. gov). It uses state health inspections, state staff reports and quality measures including whether residents have gotten their flu shots, are in pain, or are losing weight to make the evaluations.
    CMS used three year’s worth of inspections to rate nursing homes based on an annual survey designed to measure how well homes protect the health and safety of their residents. The information focused on health inspections, nursing home staffing and quality measures.
    The measurement for staffi ng reports the number of hours of nursing and other staff dedicated per patient each day. The measurement for quality looks at 10 areas, including the percent of patients with bed sores after their first 90 days in the nursing home and the number of residents whose mobility worsened after admission.
    For Glendale, the county skilled nursing home on Hetcheltown Road, CMS used July 14 and July 19, 2007, Feb. 11. 2008, and May 2, 2008, and DOH inspections to achieve a one-star rating for health inspections.
    According to these reports, Glendale was cited 13 times. The state uses a four-point index to measure harm, ranging from potential for minimal harm, level 1, to death, level 4.
GLENDALE CITATIONS
In Glendale’s case, two of the citations involved level 3, actual harm. One of the level 3 citations was for hiring people with a legal history of abusing, neglecting or mistreating residents and failing to report and investigate acts and reports of abuse, neglect or mistreatment of residents. The second level 3 citation dealt with failing to provide social services to help residents achieve the highest possible quality of life.
    Ten of the citations were level 2 and one was level 1.
    CMS relied on other data — comparisons involving state and national averages — to give Glendale a three-star rating for staffing and a three-star rating for quality measures. Glendale was better than the state and national averages for bed sores and for patients with pain. It had more patients with delirium than state and national averages.
    Administrators for Dutch Manor and Northwoods were not available for comment.
    The CMS created the system to help consumers, their families and caregivers compare nursing homes more easily and help identify areas in which to ask questions, according to the federal Web site.
    Schenectady County Legislator Dr. Brian Gordon, chairman of the county Legislature’s Health and Glendale committees, said the ranking system shows a need for the county to provide better oversight of Glendale.
    Schenectady County is proposing to build a $51 million, 200-bed facility to replace the obsolete Glendale Home. It must start construction before Nov. 1, 2009.
    “While nobody wants to have deficiencies cited, deficiencies were noted and were addressed appropriately,” Gordon said.
    Gordon said the state surveys, used to develop the CMS rankings, revolved around a couple of incidents since corrected. “It is very important to note that this was a moment in time,” he said.
    However, he said he is not pleased with Glendale’s CMS ranking and has set up an oversight mechanism for Glendale. It will involve quarterly meetings of county legislators with Glendale Administrator Harvey Finkelstein to discuss quality of care issues and of having Finkelstein make semi-annual presentations to the county Legislature about Glendale, Gordon said.
    Gordon said he expects Glendale’s ranking to improve when the CMS updates its list next quarter.
FAMILY INSPECTIONS
    Local and state officials said the federal ranking system is just one more tool to use when selecting a nursing home.
    “It is one of those ideas that works on paper, but the system still needs a lot of work. There are elements in the evaluation that don’t tell you much about overall quality,” said Carl Young, president of the New York State Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.
    “The bottom line is for families to go into facilities, walk around, see how staff interact with residents and with each other, and see whether people are open and inviting,” Young said. “It is like choosing a college for a child.”
    The state Department of Health said people should visit its Web site for detailed data on local nursing homes in addition to the federal site before making a decision.
    “This is just one of the many tools available to New Yorkers to help them make the best decisions about their long-term care needs,” said Health Department spokeswoman Beth Goldberg.
    “We also urge families and caretakers to visit nursing homes, look at what services are offered and speak to the nursing home administrators in their area to help them determine which nursing home is right for their loved one,” Goldberg said.
    Kingsway Arms Nursing Center on Kings Road received the highest ranking in Schenectady County, four out of five stars. No Schenectady County nursing home received five stars; four nursing homes in Albany and Rensselaer counties did receive five stars.
    Kingsway spokeswoman Jean Barnoski said the facility is proud to be the top-rated nursing home in the county and is proud of the care it provides. However, she said, a rating system based on fi ve stars doesn’t provide the whole picture.
    “Medicare’s new rating system in one of many pieces of information consumers should consider when............................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00902

The CSEA, who attended the public forum regarding the 2009 County Budget to request increased funding for the Glendale Nursing Home, must be so proud.  County Legislator Gordon attempts to dismiss the 13 violations by reducing them to only a "couple of incidents".  Plausible denial?

These are our family members, friends and neighbors.  Schenectady County has no business operating a nursing home. Apparently they can't measure up to those in the private sector who are doing a superior job in caring for our elderly.

It is time to privatize the county nursing homes.  The county health department can be responsible for oversight of operations by
the new owner.  

I agree with you, how will more beurocracy improve the standards at the nursing home.  These people deserve better then what county government is providing them.