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Show The Enterprise Review , July 21, 1976 Page 2b HEW Forcing Closure of Nursing Homes Continued From Page lb meet current federal life and Intersafety requirements. mediate care homes accommodate elderly people who do not need constant or special attention. These 35 homes must make improvements like expanding the width of hall corridors to meet fire safety standards, installing heat and smoke detectors, widening door ways, adding additional floor space to insure patient comfort and adding emergency lighting systems. Manor said. We know that its necessary and it makes us more efficient. Our complaint is that weve not always been reimbursed like wre should have been even under the old Medicare plan. Medicade is about the same as the old Medicare reimbursement. Payments are basically the same and cover the same areas. We are not paid for a lot of things, he added. For wre reimshould be example, bursed for laundering patients clothing, but the federal governmenty figures that if a patient is well enough to wear street clothing, hes well enough to be on the street and not is a nursing home. They don't understand that its part of our therapy to dress patients in their own clothing rather than hospital garb. It helps them feel at home and many of them recover from illness faster if they feel more comfortable. We should also be paid e for the services of a social worker and part of the new office personnel weve had to hire to keep up with the increased flow of government paperwork. Improvements All Around Skilled nursing homes (those that offer special and more extensive care) have also had to make improvements. In addition to meeting structural requirements, skilled homes have been required to add special personnel to their staffs. Such additions include nurses, special-consultin- g dieticians, social workers, consulting pharmacists, additional office personnel, a phys-cia- n working in the capacity of medical director and a consulting physical therapist. McFall says that even though many of the structural improvements and additional staffers are paid for by the federal government, some of his expenses are not reimThese additional bursed. costs add to the expense of the elderly living in nursing homes and only make them more dependent on Medicade. Despite the expense, most nursing home administrators agree it is necessary. We dont mind making the additional improve- Merlin ments, Reeder, administrator of Highland full-tim- Gose, If Theres No Profit Reeder says that he may have to close the doors of his facility, a skilled nursing home, if he isnt allowed to make a profit. I could probably keep operating, he said, but thats not the idea. The whole purpose of having a business is to make a profit. If you cant make a profit, theres really no point in staying open. There is a way to make Utah Machine Tools 3240 South 11th East SPECIALS Monarch 33 11' x attachment. Voest 17 x 60. GAP attachment, tooled well. Summet 11" tooled. cc. taper taper 32", new' 25. x Mills: XLO Vertical Mill, 10" x 48", 2hp varispeed, new. Bridgeport BRJ 9" x 42". Sundstrand Production Mill, 9" x 48, rapid traverse & automatic cycle. Drills: Summit Radial. 3 tabic, new OOYA radial, 4' clamp, box table. 8". box x 13", power elv.& Everett 18" abrasive lOhp. Wells horizontal 9" Shears. x 12" hyd. Pexto 5' x cut-of- f, 16". x 516". Hercules Brakes. 12 . Wisconsis Press Brake. 300 ton x Chicago leaf brake 8'xl4 ga. grinder, pow-e- r Abrasive 6" feed. 18" x surface Complete warehouse full of machine tools. All sizes and types. Buy homes et Sell Liquidate Banks dont McFall said. want to loan money to build a nursing home because they cant make a profit. Businessmen certainly don't want to invest their money in nursing homes for the same reason. It would be considered bad business to invest in something that offers no return on investment and if nursing homes arent making a profit I cant see any future in the construction of new homes. This also creates a problem when it comes to making also operate in Salt Lake City. They are houses just like the ones most people live in, except several elderly people live there too. Its very common and the Governor knows they exist. He apparently isnt going to close them improvements in nursing homes to meet federal life down and I dont know what McFall would happen to the elderly safety requirements. said. Its almost impossible people if they were closed for a nursing home adminisdown. In Utah, any home hous- . trator to go to the bank ing and caring for more than anymore to obtain a loan for one elderly person, who is not capital improvements. Bankers naturally want to a relative, must have a nursing home license. Homes that know how much profit margin care for the elderly without a a business can produce to nursing home license are illegal but they can realize a high profit margin and also avoid government regulations. Aside from operating illegally, nursing homes can house only private-payin- g patients and still operate at a But that market is profit. declining. If there was a substantial market of private-payin- g elderly patients, I would house only privates and let someone else take the Medicade patients, Reeder said. Unfortunately, there are very few elderly people who can pay for their own care and even those who start out paying for themselves soon exhaust their funds and become dependent on the government. If a substantial number of nursing homes in Utah should be forced to close, the welfare of the homeless elderly would become a factor of major concern. Utah nursing homes are filled to about a 92 percent capacity at present and it is doubtful that remaining the near future. Nursing homes have become a very bad investment, insure loan payments. When the administrator tells his banker he doesnt make a profit, hell be laughed right out of the bank. Helen Timothy, Sen. Gams special assistant for consultant services, described the entire nursing affair a vicious home-governme- nt cycle. Timothy said that about 35 Utah homes will have trouble complying with federal and safety regulations because, as she put it, The nursing homes cant meet the regulations without money, and they cant borrow the money without being able to make a profit. life Timothy, like McFall believes that it is not the long-rang- e plan of the federal government to nationalize I pernursing home care. sonally dont believe that nationalization of nursing homes is the intent of the nursing homes are forced out I'm of business, he said. sure there will be a lot of closures around the state and I can see why nursing homes are having such a tough time. They w'ere so dependent on the profit from the Medicade patients and now they have to depend entirely on the private . patients. The federal reimbursement program does make a provision for individual states to provide state nursing homes with the incentive to make a profit. About $700,000 has been alloted the state of Utah by the federal government to give us a profit under the Medicade program. Its up to the state and so far they say they cant afford it, but w e would rather negotiate out of court if possible. McFall believes the impact of a new reimbursement program has not yet been felt; nor will it be fully realized for some time. He suspects, however, that the elderly people will be hit very hard by its impact. There will be a lot of shifting around of elderly patients. People who have been established in one home for years will have to readjust to life in a new home and old people have a hard time getting used to new surroundings. The people in government probably dont realize that because they are so far removed from the problems of the elderly. McFall says that elderly people who will be forced to relocate will suffer a psychoAccording to logical traum can cause old this McFall, people to withdraw to themselves and has been known to cause death. non-prof- it He hopes to negotiate with the state and come up with some sort of profit cap- government, she said. Steve Poulsen, assistant director of medical certifica- abilities for Medicade tion for the state of Utah, patients. In the meantime, he agrees in part. I dont think suspects some of the smaller it is the conscious goal of the homes in Utah will go out of federal government to nation- business and others will make alize the nursing home indus- profits illegally as they try to try, but that may be the postpone what may very well eventual outcome if enough be their closure. Switch to Three Gallon Toilets County commissioners will hold a public hearing on a proposal to require use of flush toilets in all new construction in the county on August 5, 10:00 a.m. The proposal also would require all homes in Big and low-volu- SaWS. 12 x Black-mark- homes could absorb a substantial number of new patients. It is also unlikely that any new homes will be built in Salt Lake City, Utah 84106 Phone (801) 486-355- 1 Lathes: I illegal profits, he said. won't say how but it has been suggested by a certain state official that I operate with an illegal profit. There are some homes in Salt Lake City that do it and get away with it but I prefer not to; never have, and I never will. Cottonwood Little and to convert to Parleys Canyons the low-volu- five years. toilet within We can conserve water and reduce the load on the treatment plants be requiring use of this kind of toilet, explained Terry Sadler of the county health department. He said the regular toilet uses eight gallons of water, and the type uses only low-volu- three gallons per flush. The average county resident has been using 45 gallons of water a day just flushing the toilet. That is 36 percent of all the water used Sadler by each resident, said. He estimated use of the new appliance could save up to seven percent of the water being used, and reduce the load on the treatment plants by 5.7 percent. Edmund Evans, of the Utah Plumbing Contractors Association, said he thinks the requirement is a good idea. We dont need the heavy water types, he said. "The new types are just as good. They could be less expensive because theyre less compact. And they could eliminate all the noise with less water, he continued. Evans speculated manufacturers have not produced this type of toilet in the past because they dont like to change.. But, he said, they should be forced to make this new type of toilet. The new appliance is generally available now, he said. Cities all over the country are having a problem with their water supply, and if this type of toilet can help save water, its a good idea, he said. |