Monday, October 25, 2010

Gracedale Rally

Both the Express-Times (read it here) and the Morning Call (read it here) have articles on a rally that took place at Gracedale to keep the facility in the hands of the county and not be sold.

The articles note that about 50 - 75 people were at the rally. The Coalition of Alzheimer Families and two unions organized the event and indicated they are planning to get enough signatures to put the issue on the spring ballot. The ballot question would be an attempt to force the county to keep the facility for five years.

In order to get on the ballot, organizers will need just under 20,000 signatures, or 10% of those registered to vote in the county.

Estimates by the county indicate there will be a $6 million operating loss by the facility over five years and need of about $12 million for capital improvement over the next two years.

Posted via email from Ross Nunamaker

2 comments:

Elyssia said...

If the county estimates that "there will be a $6 million operating loss by the facility over five years and need of about $12 million for capital improvement over the next two years", why are we trying to force the county to keep the facility?

On Long Island, Nassau County Medical Center didn't have the greatest reputation and wasn't run as efficiently as it could have been. It was eventually privatized and renamed Nassau University Medical Center. It runs more efficiently now then when it was county-run.

Which company or healthcare network is looking into purchasing Gracedale? Do they want to scrap it or take it over to improve it? If they want to scrap it, what options will patient's families have for relocation? I'm just curious.

Unknown said...

It's a no brainer that privatization will improve Gracedale. The private sector is much more efficient than any government run organization can ever hope to be.

Private facilities have to turn a profit. To do that, they must first offer a product that people are willing to consume or use, then streamline the operation to reduce operational costs.

This would be a huge boost to the taxpayers in that we would lose the cost of running this facility and at the same time gain an additional source of tax revenue that wasn't previously there.

The residents would win by getting better services and a better facility that is run more efficiently.

It seems the only ones that stand to lose are the union workers that stand to lose jobs that in some cases aren't necessary.