COST VERSUS CARE

Nursing Home Cost Versus Care

I am a resident of a nursing home in Shippensburg, Southampton Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. As a resident here for almost three years, I have seen the care deteriorate quite substantially. On Tuesday, February 12, 2008, I was informed that the facility will no longer be providing medic transport of residents to their doctors' appointments unless the resident is willing to pay for the service. I asked "with what?" They get all my Medicare and Medicaid. The home is now providing what I consider unsafe transport. It is a large reclining chair that supposedly converts into a stretcher which I refused to use. I am a Dwarf and have learned that medical equipment manufactured for full size adults is not always safe for very short adults. On my present wheelchair the leg extensions are too long, so they engineered an accumulation of padded cushions arranged so as to rest my feet.

I now feel that this nursing home is more interested in making profits by reducing the quality of care to its residents. Several months ago, they hired a new dietary manager. I talked to her about the food quality, and she assured me things will change. Well they did. Good food items were dropped from the menu and replaced with less expensive items. The French toast is thinner than a regular slice of bread. Just how thin was it before swelling to a larger size due to absorbing the egg mixture? Bacon use to be three slices; now it is two slices, sometimes three, but very thin. The menu is almost the same as it was three years ago before the money cuts. I feel that anyone who has a family member residing here, or in other nursing homes, should spend a full twenty-four hour unannounced visit to see what your loved ones are subject to, and to sample the cuisine. The Director of Nursing is somewhat in agreement with me but says these changes are handed down from corporate (the owners) and she either initiates them or loses her job. I have decided to be the residents' Gandhi; not by starving myself to death (too painful) but by refusing my medicines. This should bring about my early demise and rid the home of a troublemaker.