WCCC Collects $50,000 in Bills

The Worth County Convalescent Center has collected $50,000 in bills recently. The facility is still working on making the financial statements look more readable; they are making more progress on that goal so that board members can see an accurate picture of the facility's finances. The new satellite system has been put in with many positive comments from the residents over the many options. There were high installation costs; however, it will pay for itself in four and a half years over the old system.

The cost per resident in August was around $189 per resident.

The facility has been working on marketing events with residents. The Grant City Fire Department came and showed one of their fire trucks recently with Ryan Owens. The USDA awarded a $13,000 grant for the new boiler system and many people gave presentations at the event. The facility has new rocking chairs that were donated by a family member. Employees were working on restaining and making the furniture look nicer before the USDA visit.

Custodian Ronnie Supinger used a bucket or two of treatment for the leaking roof around the kitchen. The backyard will need landscaping work and the sidewalk will need a drain.

The board voted to change the call-in/incentive pay procedure for employees.

The board voted to approve lowering the tax revenue estimates by $7,000 for the facility from $97,000 to $90,000 citing the drought and lower assets from farmers.

Room renovations were extensively discussed. The goal will be to renovate the rest of the facility and figure out ways to reduce costs. Distribution of shared and private rooms was discussed along with moving the beauty and physical therapy rooms so that the physical therapist would have more room to work with. After discussing priorities, the board agreed to put new trim in the hallways and make them look uniform along with moving the beauty shop. The therapy room situation will be discussed next. The east wing will come next and the north and west will be done depending on the direction of the facility. The board voted to spend up to $10,000 for a new walk-in bathtub that would replace the whirlpool, which is not being used as much. The WCCC received a donation to put in a walk-in bathtub. After agreeing on priorities, the next step will be to find and talk to a contractor.

The board will at some point have to discuss the long-term future of the facility. Currently, there is less and less demand for skilled care. The problem is that Medicare is focusing more and more on observation and getting people back into their homes as soon as possible. Also, it used to be that assisted living patients had to move to a skilled unit when their situation got beyond a certain point; now, an assisted living patient can stay in their assisted living facility. Another option would be to create an apartment wing in which residents could not use the nursing or staff but could stay there for cheaper than they would have otherwise.