I read in the Sullivan County Democrat (8/1/23) that Legislator George Conklin considers himself a “numbers man,” and that he thinks this legislature has accomplished great things.  

I really don’t see what’s so great about the deal with Infinite Care, and why those numbers look good to him. We’re paying an extra half a million a year in taxes that we didn’t have to pay before, and the county is still paying, while the rating numbers keep sliding lower.  

A rating of one star is like having your kid come home with a D-minus on his report card. A good parent would work with his kid and teacher to try to find out what the heck was going on, especially if he had been getting As and Bs in that subject only a few years before, but I think that some of those who are supposed to be our leaders would just as soon that the facility closes or burns to the ground. 

Those broken eggs who are the residents there—that Mr. Robert A. Doherty would throw away—are not numbers. While Mr. Doherty enjoys his tasty omelet, those residents are suffering. 

 I just finished reading the NYSDOH Survey on the Adult Care Center from early July, which was triggered by an incident there on June 28. This is a public document that is available for anybody to read; it is from the notebook on the receptionist’s desk at the Adult Care Center.  

The survey document details the staff’s failure to perform the CPR which could have saved a patient’s life, the perspectives of all the staff involved, the policies involved and the actions of management. 

It is interesting reading, especially because of all that it leaves out of the account, and it also provides a real glimpse of how things are during the night shift at the Adult Care Center.

It features a trainee aide’s frantic and unsuccessful attempts to get help for a dying patient from other staff. 

I want to express my deepest sympathy for this patient’s family’s sad loss at our county’s nursing home. I gather that another survey was conducted there even more recently, and I’m going to make sure that the public gets to hear about it. 

This legislature’s attempt to pass the buck to Infinite Care for the management of the facility is a failure, but evidently they’re sticking with this company for no reason that numbers could justify.  

This legislature is leaving a huge mess for the next legislature to have to fix, and the ACC’s one-star rating is going on its own report cards. 

Great things, phooey.

Lise Kennedy lives in Neversink, NY.