Dear Members of the SC Legislature, NYS DOH, Residents of Sullivan County and the State of New York,

Good Morning,

Thank you for listening to our letter that is being read. Yes, our letter is anonymous because staff are afraid of retaliation from management. We want to bring to your attention the critical issues that are happening at the Sullivan County Adult Care Center. We will state the issues:

1. STAFF SHORTAGE-
2. Weekends are the worst- -2 CNAs to heavy skilled units, residents dependent for all care that are assist of 2 and require the use of a mechanical lift from bed to chair and back to bed to chair to be taken care of. Units 3 + 4 have 3-40 residents and most that must have 2 people to assist them. And if there is only 1 aide and has to try and get a nurse to help is hard when they have meds and treatments to do. 
3. Names on the schedule that are no call/no shows, not supposed to work, or ever signed up [to work the shift]. This ends up [with] staff working short or being mandated. But when Frontline or Agency does not show, they don’t get in trouble for it, only County Staff gets in trouble when they don’t show up, because we have to follow policy, they don’t.
4. Holes in the schedule that are not filled: Management should fill the holes by coming in to work and work the floors to see how we feel when working short.

2. COUNTY STAFF TREATED DIFFERENT THAN FRONTLINE STAFF (INFINITE CARE)
3. County Staff written up for not changing a resident, but when a list of residents’ names [was] was given to management that breakfast trays were placed in room, not opened, and out of reach of the resident, and residents not changed. Staff gave the names of the Infinite Care workers, nothing was done to them about it. They didn’t get written up or talked to about it.
4. COUNTY STAFF [must] follow County Policies and Procedures, while Frontline Staff does not have any to follow. Why is Frontline PRN or per diem not having to do one weekend per month? Even some of their full-time Frontline Staff does not work every other weekend. When County has to do one weekend per month being PRN or per diem? This is because Frontline does not have to follow County Policy and procedures. Frontline Staff knows County Rules don’t apply to Frontline. By both groups of staff following different rules [it] makes the building crazy. This is just one example.
5. NO PLACE TO GO IN MANAGEMENT TO VENT ABOUT ISSUES DUE TO ADMINISTRATOR WILL TELL US TO SPEAK WITH THE D.O.N. We cannot talk to the D.O.N.  because of the destabilization of staff. We are sorry we believe management needs to be changed to a County Position people only, from Unit Managers all the way up to the Administrator. It is a hostile environment. We are tired of being talked down to by management in front of residents and families. D.O.N. is a major issue, especially with lack of experience. D.O.N. does not listen to staff. A big example [was] when a unit had COVID and D.O.N. moved residents off the unit to other units. Staff advised the D.O.N. to leave all residents on the unit until all residents are negative [for COVID]. D.O.N. still had residents move that ended up COVID positive after being moved to other units. This caused COVID to break out on those [other] units. 
6. House Managers were not answering calls or pages when needed. [There is] a House Manager phone, and this still happens. When there are 2-3 House managers. None of them help staff on the floor.
7. DELAY OF CARE
8. X-Ray taking more than 24 hours to be done. Most of the time it is 48-72 hours for them to get done. One time it took a week to get an X-Ray done.
9. Blood work and Urine is picked up two times a week instead a week. A mistake is when Doctors order blood or urine it is supposed to be done right away, unless the order states when it should be collected. Example: Jane Doe collects CBC, CMP on 3/12/2024, and this not a delay of care.
10. Antibiotics delayed given due to order started on same day written and not in from pharmacy. Yes, there is a machine that holds medication. Most of the time there is no staff in the building who can open the machine. There are times the machine is not stocked with Antibiotic or medication that is needed.
11. A company has come in to check al equipment. There was an issue with a lift and a resident was dropped from the lift and got hurt.
12. New Staff are not given a choice between County or Frontline Application, only given Frontline app.

We know there is a letter that the D.O.N. wrote after an article was printed in the paper [about] how the D.O.N. ignored [ a request] to speak with Legislators. Yes, staff did sign, most are Frontline employees that are either close with management, or are scared of having more of a hostile work environment.

We would like Cynthia Hathaway, or Sue Southerton back in as D.O.N. At least these two ladies took care of issues and spoke to staff like a human.

Management was aware of a nurse breaking a Staff member’s HIPPA in an email that was sent to a number of other staff that didn’t even know what happened to this employee. Now they know because a nurse wrote the email about the staff [member’s] health. Nothing was done to the nurse that broke HIPPA on another staff member. 

There are more issues, but we would be here all day. Thank You for listening to our issues. 

Sincerely,

Anonymous Sullivan Adult Care Center Staff – 20 CNAs & 13 Nurses