EASTON, Pa.- Pay raises are coming for some leadership positions at Gracedale nursing home.
On Thursday night, Northampton County Council approved salary increases for 27 nurse supervisor positions, at the request of County Executive Tara Zrinski.
“Competitive pay for supervising RNs (registered nurses) is necessary to recruit and retain the experienced around-the-clock nursing leadership required to improve safety, consistency and accountability,” she said.
Currently, Gracedale nursing supervisors who are employed by the county start at $34.83 an hour. But supervisors brought in from outside agencies make much more at $60 an hour. On top of that, the county pays the agency an extra $31 for each nurse.
Zrinski’s request, which the council approved by a vote of 7-0 (Commissioners Ken Kraft and Tom Giovanni were absent), was to increase the pay grade and start new supervisors between a range of $39.99 an hour and $52.07 an hour. Those figures include only wages and not county benefits.
At the moment, most of the nursing supervisor positions at the county-owned and operated facility in Upper Nazareth Township are being filled by agency nurses. The 27 positions approved for the pay increase will be filled by county hires.
The two county-employed supervisors who are currently on the job will see the same pay bump, which, according to the resolution, is effective immediately.
The increases are part of a larger operational plan for Gracedale that Zrinski said will focus on staffing, supervision, accountability, workforce stability and residential safety.
One of the priorities is reducing the facility’s dependency on agency nurses in general. “The goal is less than 20% agency,” Zrinski said. “And we’re hoping to do that by both reducing the census and hiring more people: nurses, CNAs (certified nursing assistants), LPNs (licensed practical nurses). We think that we can do that by the end of the second quarter in 2027.”
Zrinski was also asked about the findings of a grand jury report about safety concerns at Gracedale that was made public earlier this month by Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta.
Documents released along with the report showed Zrinski requested that the report be quashed and/or sealed and not made available to the public; the request was denied.
Commissioner David Holland, a former administrator at Gracedale, asked Zrinski why she made the request.
“The grand jury report is basically narrative statements,” she replied. “There is no vetting of information. It’s just taking testimony. What we identified in that report were some very hurtful and blatant untruths.”
According to court documents, the grand jury was convened in 2024 for the purpose of “investigating matters including, but not limited to, unsolved homicides” in Northampton County.
After Baratta learned about a 2025 incident at Gracedale in which a nurse allegedly subjected a patient with intellectual disabilities to a lengthy physical assault, a notice of submission for a grand jury investigation was filed to investigate “a series of concerning events related to patient safety issues,” the paperwork states.
Zrinski said the report, which has brought the 2025 episode back into the headlines, has been damaging to the residents and staff at Gracedale: “Justice should do no harm and that’s why we asked for it to be quashed.”
The report also raised concerns about staffing shortages at Gracedale as well as past deficiencies noted by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH). The nursing home is currently operating under a Provisional II license.
The DOH, in its last five inspections at Gracedale dating back to June 11, did not identify any new problems at the nursing home, and noted that past deficiencies had been addressed.
Later in the meeting on Thursday night, Holland raised the idea of bringing in a third-party consultant to complete an assessment of Gracedale, something he first proposed in January. The idea is expected to be discussed further at a future committee meeting.