Anita Burroughs: Time For New Leadership in Carroll County
May 18, 2023 Updated 6 hrs ago

Recently, a public forum on the nursing home crisis was held on Zoom and to our surprise, 160 people signed up to attend.
One of my fellow delegates declared that the meeting was “heartless, shameful and scaring our residents.”
Commissioner Matthew Plache, who recently resigned, echoed similar sentiments, claiming the forum was intended for “political” gain. What is shameful is for public officials to fail to address a problem that impacts our community, particularly when it involves vulnerable seniors.

The forum addressed the nursing shortage at Mountain View Community, which is a challenge being faced throughout New Hampshire and the nation. If the first quarter financials are extrapolated to the calendar year, our local nursing home in Ossipee will spend 60 times more ($888,000) on agency staff to compensate for this shortage when historically we have spent only $15,000. Mountain View is losing revenue from empty beds because private patients are deciding to go elsewhere for better staffed facilities.

 
Last year, MVC revenue exceeded budget expectations by $1.7 million. If current trends continue, Mountain View’s revenue will end up $600,000 below budget by the end of the fiscal year and we, the taxpayers will likely have to make up this $3.2 million shortfall with a 19.4 percent increase in our county tax rate. And the situation is getting worse because there has been a steady stream of nurses who are leaving Mountain View Community.
Not all nurses are leaving the nursing home for better financial opportunities. Many of these employees enjoyed working in their own community and were mission driven to ensure that life at Mountain View was the best it could be.
Many believe that the supportive and family-like environment that was fostered by former administrator Howie Chandler no longer exists. And there is concern that rotating agency staff don’t get the opportunity to become as invested as staff employees.
The question is what needs to be done to ensure the viability of the Mountain View nursing home. Now that Commissioners Plache and Kim Tessari have resigned, they must be replaced with experienced individuals who know how to right the ship. This includes filling the vacancies with individuals with strong financial acumen, ideally with a background in nursing or health care.

The decision for appointing new commissioners should be non-partisan and party affiliation should not be the deciding factor; competence and experience should. The commissioners should engage the services of a competent consultant who can do an evaluation of Mountain View with objectivity and lack of bias. This should include a financial analysis, an evaluation of the quality of care, and a critical look at the working environment for nurses. They should report back to both the commissioners and the delegation with a plan of action that ensures that Mountain View is the best place to live and work.

 
In terms of recruitment, the nursing home may want to emulate some of the programs instituted at Memorial Hospital in North Conway. One of the tools that Memorial Hospital is utilizing is hiring staff that can work under RN supervision.
Memorial Hospital worked this year with LNA Health Careers out of Laconia to have four local students complete an LNA (licensed nursing assistant) course at the Merriman House. This was a combination of online classes and on-site clinical training.
Students received tuition assistance from a donor-designated fund at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. All four students were hired and now work at Merriman. There is also a partnership with LNA for a similar program for medical nursing assistants. Six graduates are currently working at Memorial and have committed to working in a medical assistant role for two years.
This year, Memorial Hospital expects to hire eight of the 24 White Mountain Community College RN graduates, with one of the 24 choosing to work at Merriman House.
A similar program exists at Huggins Hospital in Wolfeboro. Until recently, Mountain View had a program to train the LPNs it needs in partnership with White Mountains Community College. Such a program is critical to solving our staffing problems.
The resignations of commissioners Plache and Tessari presents our county with an opportunity to choose new leaders who will set a different course for Mountain View Community nursing home. It is our sincere hope that our county delegation will put aside partisan politics and pick experienced leaders capable of solving this issue for us all.

 
Anita Burroughs is a Democratic state representative from Bartlett.