Newspaper Page Text
Action Promised
On Complaints
About Oak View
i from front page
older gaarts of the facility where
bed have knocked holes in
walls.
'— Aides go to lunch at the
same time, leaving too few on
the winsgs.
— Solid food diets are
brought to residents who are
comatose or semi-comatose.
— One nursing home staff
member has allegedlfy been
“busted” in the past for drug
— Medication isn’t always
dispensed at the right time.
— Medicaid was billed two
yfiars ago for sox;:e a;ilhysiglal
therapy services she allege
dign’g};eceive. stk
.—_ The parking lots are
muddy.
— A Freater variety and
quality of food is needed for
most &tients.
" — One restroom fouled with
excrement wasn't cleaned by
the nursing home but had to be
cl by the famili'; com
ints about a befouled cur
tain in the same room had to be
aireg;?eatedly before it was
— An acuwtg' director isn’t
needed for the facility.
PROUD
.- But both Womack and Ms.
Dover said they are “proud” of
havmg the facility in the coun
ty but want corrections made
to some problems.
Sweitzer and members of
the authority seemed surpris
ed by the complaints.
In some cases, such as the
situation with the ramg. it was
md by the state, Sweitzer
lained. He saw that no-slip
8 were £aced on the floor
id -handrails added to make
the area safer. There are sup
posed to be enou%h nursing
assistants available at
mealtimes to helg residents in
wheelchairs or those with dif
ficulty in walking :3) and down
the ramp, he added.
Diets for patients with
special needs are prescribed by
tmphysician. not the nursing
home, he added.
i Eufene McGinnis, chair
man of the panel, also said that
an activities director is re
quired by the state. Sweitzer
said the director plans pro
ams for all patients, even for
fiose who are bedridden, even
if it just involves moving inac
tive limbs regularly.
NOT HAPPY
Ms. Dover and Womack
said theg' had brought some of
the problems to the attention
&f,nurses or nursing assistants
dnd even to the director of nur
sing. They said they had not
gotten satisfactory results.
Sweitzer said he was
unaware of the complaints and
invited Ms. Dover and
Womack to bring any problem
to his attention immediately.
McGinnis said he appreciated
people with relatives in the nur
sing home bringing problems
to the attention of Sweitzer
and the board ‘‘because no nur
' sfinfiome is perfect.” He also
added, “I feel a majority of peo
ple are trying to do a good
job ... We want the best of
care for our patients.”
/ “We have a very high level
of care in this nursing home
with very limited resources,”
Sweitzer told the family
members. Geoifia has the se
cond lowest Medicaid reim
bursement rate to nursindg
homes in the nation, he said.
*“There’s not enough money to
gg 311 the things we'd like to
Sweitzer said both before
and after the group left that
there were some aspects and
facts he was aware of that he
couldn’t comment on publicly
because of patient confiden
tiality laws and regulations.
PROBE
The executive director said
he would investigate the issues
raised by Ms. Dover and
Womack, take “apfiro;l)‘riate ac
tion” and report back to the
authority. Some of the allega
tions are “quite serious,” he
said.
If it were to be Eroven that
any staff member ad sle:fped
a patient, Sweitzer said, he
would fire the staffer.
_ln other matters, Sweitzer
said the hospital lost $25,855
in December but the nursing
home posted a surplus of
$53,804 for a net combined
surplus of $27,949. He had
hoped to have the January
reports available for the
meeting but the facility’s book
keeper had to be out a week
due to a family illness, he said.
. The hospital-nursing home
assets to liabilities ratio was
2.6.t0 1 in December, he said.
Because that total includes
cash reserved for a June p?i);-
ment of t«heddhosKitalbon ‘
the figure is somew t inflated,
gweitzer added. The actual
1 should be around 2.2 to
LICENSURE
The hospital did well on a
recent state licensure reinspec
tion, the executive director
said. The state panel will
return in two or three months
to make sure that the newly in-
stituted quality assurance pro
gram is working properly, he
added.
In another matter, Sweitzer
said renovation of one part of
the facility for a third emergen
¢y room had been completed. It
will be used mostly for care of
children and non-urgent care
although it can be used as a
third emergency facility. All
the eguipment for the room
should arrive within a week or
two, he added.
DONATION
Sweitzer also announced
that GTE, which provides
telephone service for Chat
tooga County, will donate
$5,000 for each of two years
this srring, helping the
hosgita meet some of its
needs.
The nursing home’s
volunteer auxiliary has used
SI,OOO of the money it raised
for the Love Lite program in
December to buy new furniture
for the nursing iome lobby, he
announced. It received a
substantial discount on the fur
niture from Stansell Furniture
Co., Trion, he indicated.
The hospital has started
awarding a quarterly em(f)loyee
incentive service awards and
plans are being made for the
June Gala sponsored by the
hospital and its volunteer aux
iliary. Pre-school groups are
continuing to tour the hospital
to make the children more
familiar with the facility,
Sweitzer noted.
SPRINKLER
Although the hospital had
been assured verbally that a
sprinkler system wouldn’t be
regljl(ired for its proposed new
walkway and carport in front
of the nursing home, Sweitzer
said the state fire marshal will
require sprinklers.
It wil? be necessary for a
contractor to get his sprinkler
subcontractor to design plans
for the system and have those
P}ans submitted to the state
ire marshal for approval, he
explained. “‘lt’s going to take
us a while to get that.”
McGinnis asked Chattooga
County Commissioner Jim
Parker, who attended the ses
sion, when he planned to let a
countywide paving contract.
The commissioner said he an
ticipated the action would be
taken within a couple of
months. McGinnis followed up
by asking when he would pave
the frontdparking area, which is
now muddy. St
Parker said it would be wise
to resolve the drainage issue in
the lot prior to paving. Ira
Pollard, an authority 'member
and a member of the Summer
ville Cit}\; Council, suggested
asking the city's engineers to
investigate the problem.
A tentative meeting bet
ween the engineers, city of
ficials, authority members and
Parker was scheduled for to
day, depending on the
engineers’ schedu%e.
The cost to nursing home
gatients who pay their own
ills will increase on April 1,
based on authority action. The
rate for a semi-private room
will increase from $65 to $72
daily while the rate for a
private room will rise from S7O
to $77 per day.
The rate for Medicaid pa
tients will rise from $64.18 to
$65.42 on April 1 because of
the minimum wage increase,
Sweitzer explained, and the
estimated Medicaid reimburse
ment rate will jump to $71.50
on July 1, or possibly on June
1, he added. The law doesn’t
allow the nursing home to
charge private pay patients
less than that charged to
Medicaid ;l)]atients, he said.
In another matter, Sweitzer
noted that Sam Finster,
authority attorney, had resign
ed effective Feb. 15 due to tgl-:le
press of his other business. Dr.
Hugh Goodwin, an authority
member, suggested that
members of the panel seek out
attorneys they know to see if
they would be interested in
becoming the hospital's at
torney, and report back to
Sweitzer.
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You're 51
MARCH 6
| Love You — ‘
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The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers has fina.fiy received
approval to conduct a flood
study at the pr(();posed site of a
new (z_,hattooga ounty landfill.
But the approval won't mean
that the study will be com
pleted any sooner than
estimated originally.
In another landfill-related
matter, Commissioner Jim
Parker said the Georgia En
vironmental Protection Divi
sion has approved a closure
{)lan for the Penn Bridge Road
andfill.
Parker received word Mon
day morning from Seventh
District Congressman George
“Buddy’’ Darden that tfie
Federaly Emergency Manage
ment Agency (FEMA) had told
the Corps to i)roceed with the
Chattoogaville flood study.
The $30,000 maximum cost
will be borneby FEMA and the
study is supposed to be com
pleted by Jufy 14
WAITING
Commissioner Parker was
told last September by the
Corps that the study couldn’t
start until mid-January, 1991,
and it would take five to six
months to complete the ex
amination — or around July 1,
1991. The Corps had been
waiting for FEMA to receive
appropriations to pay for the
study.
The county is supposed to
close the Penn Brigge Road
landfill no later than Sept. 1 of
this year. Commissioner
Parker has said several times
that it would take about six
months to prepare a new land
fill site to accept its first load
of garbage. No solution to the
dilemma%las been reached, bar-
STUDIO PORTRAITS - - N LIVING COLOR
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COMING TO - ;
SUPER-D IN TRION
MONDAY & TUESDAY, MARCH 4 & 5
HOURS 10:00 A.M. TO 5:00 P.M.
Photography by B& H Studio + P.O. 565 + Henagar, Ala. 35978 -~ . srmoen =
Corps Gets Flood Study Okay
ring possible approval of a pro
posed state law that would
allow counties such as Chat
too§a to continue ‘‘stacking”’
garbage at existing sites and
covering it with hauled-in soil.
17 QUESTIONS
The EPD last year asked
the county to provide it with
answers to 17 questions about
the tproposed Chattoogaville
landfill site, one of the ques
tions being the flooding issue.
Commissioner Parker said
Monday that he has asked
Tribble & Richardson Inc.,
Atlanta, the county’s engineer
ing firm, to seek immediate
EPD review of the county's
answers to the other 16 ques
tions and to then review the
flood study when it is com
pleted this summer. That's an
effort to speed 13: the EPD
review process, the commis
sioner said. Whether that will
be successful remained to be
seen Monday. 2
In another matter, Commis
sioner Parker said the Corps
had indicated that the ap
parent wetlands at the road en
trance to the Chattoogaville
landfill won't be a Corps permit
problem. Laria culverts will be
installed on the elevated road
way to permit the back and
forth flow of water during
times of flood, he indicated. A
resident of the area asked The
Summerville News to
photograph the flooded en
trance area last week.
Use NEWS Classifieds!
CHATTOOGA COUNTY MAP OUTLINES FIVE PROPOSED COMMISSIONERS’ DISTRICTS
Voters May Decide Between Sole, Multi-Commission Government In March, 1992
Landyfill Proposal To Be Ready By July 1
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VAVAW
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= Mi
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W o
=2 Casita
MEXICAN RESTAURANT
415 North Commerce St. Phone 857-3840
Enjoy an exciting taste of Old Mexico! We offer
authentic Mexican food, expertly prepared. Bring
the family and get set for a real treat!
ENTRANCE TO PROPOSED CHATTOOGAVILLE LANDFILL SITE FLOODED Staff Photo By Gene Espy
Road To Be Elevated With Large Culvert, Says Commissioner
LUNCH SPECIALS
2 For The ] ' Ll
Price Of FERLLLERET
Both Equal Value Or Higher Meal Will Be Charged
Now Open Sunday 12 Noon - 8 p.m.
SUNDAY LUNCH SPECIALS |
Phone in Your Order - It Will Be Ready
For you to Eat When You Get Here. Also -
TAKE-OUT SERVICE AVAILABLE
HOURS: Monday-Thursday 11-2 and 5-9:30.
Friday 11-2 and 5-10:30
Saturday 12 Noon - 10:30
The Summerville News, Thursday, February 28, 1991
| x NOW OPEN * I
118 East Washington St. Summerville
Right Behind N&C Cone Co.
PHONE 857-6194
TR AR LR AR TP LR ORO
Barbecue P1ate5................................R 48
Broasted Chicken Plates (ruesday and Saturday). . ... *3.49
Hamburger Steak Plates ..........................348
Hamburgers ....................*1.50 With Cheese *1.60
Double Burger ..................*%2.25 With Cheese *2.40
Mini8urger.....................45 Each Or 3 For 1.0
Barßlue-P0rk.......................51.50, Beef *1.70
Bar-B-Que (Pownd) - Pork °4.72, Bes! °*5.66
e OPEN 10 A.M.-8 P.M.
"‘J‘@‘fi MONDAY THRU SATURDAY
11-A