EASTON, Pa. \u2014 Northampton County Executive Tara Zrinski’s renewed effort to buoy the Gracedale Nursing Home took a step forward Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Thomas Carson was approved to lead the Continuum of Care, a new county department created specifically to oversee the county-owned and operated home in Upper Nazareth Township.<\/p>\n
Carson’s nomination was approved by the county council during its regular meeting by an 8-1 vote.<\/p>\n
Councilman Tom Giovanni cast the lone dissenting vote.<\/p>\n
Carson’s salary is listed as $109,632 annually.<\/p>\n
When benefits are factored in, his total compensation reaches $148,249.<\/p>\n
He will officially start his new role on August 17.<\/p>\n
Carson, an Air Force veteran, is the current Executive Director of Victory House of the Lehigh Valley, which provides transitional housing and other support services for veterans rebuilding their lives.<\/p>\n
While he did not appear at the council’s meeting Thursday night, he answered questions at length during a meeting of the council’s personnel committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
“I really like the idea of developing community care and supporting the things that we have currently going on with Gracedale, supporting the staff that are over there, and helping us bring in other entities to develop opportunities for our underserved populations,” Carson told the committee.<\/p>\n
Carson said he would make it a priority to meet with all frontline staff members to get their perspective on what is working and what isn’t.<\/p>\n
He also discussed finding new revenue streams and forging new community partnerships for the facility.<\/p>\n
When asked about his lack of experience working in a nursing home or a clinical setting, Carson pointed out his background in behavioral health but clarified he was not signing on to be the nursing home’s administrator.<\/p>\n
“There’s already one in place,” he said, referring to Michelle Morton, who started in the role last year. “I didn’t apply for that.”<\/p>\n
Zrinski, in her remarks Thursday night, said Carson’s skill set directly aligns with her administration’s vision for Gracedale.<\/p>\n
“He has shown that he can manage publicly funded programs, multi-million-dollar budgets, and initiatives that sit at the intersection of healthcare, behavioral health, housing, and workforce systems,” Zrinski said. “That kind of cross-sector experience is what will help us design and implement a continuum of care that’s not just aspirational but operational.”<\/p>\n
Last month, Zrinski unveiled preliminary plans for a sweeping overhaul of the 365-acre Gracedale property, including a 700-bed skilled nursing facility, medical offices, a dialysis center, workforce housing, and retail space to serve those employees.<\/p>\n
In addition, the new plan calls for the current 10-story facility to be renovated into aging-in-place apartments.<\/p>\n
Zrinski noted she hopes to lean on the Lehigh Valley’s philanthropists to help foot the bill.<\/p>\n
Gracedale has long struggled with staffing shortages, safety violations, and a poor rating from the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH).<\/p>\n
It is currently operating under a Provisional II license from the state.<\/p>\n
A facility’s license is downgraded from Regular to Provisional (I, II, III, or IV) after the state notes deficiencies that must be corrected.<\/p>\n
A serious incident was reported last July when a nurse allegedly assaulted a patient.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the most recent inspection report for Gracedale posted on the PA DOH website from May noted that a nurse lied about administering medicine to a resident who had left the facility without clearance.<\/p>\n
In another incident, a resident was found with several bottles of alcohol, marijuana vape cartridges, and a knife in his room.<\/p>\n
During a human services committee meeting earlier this month, Morton said the problems have since been addressed and corrected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EASTON, Pa. \u2014 Northampton County Executive Tara Zrinski’s renewed effort to buoy the Gracedale Nursing Home took a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[214,153,155,154,4958,6290],"class_list":["post-245916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-city_township_county_councils","tag-easton-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}