News
Nursing Home Protests
Elmira (WENY) -- Chemung County Executive, Tom Santulli has informed the legislature that sometime next year, he's going to work with a consultant to look at the operation of the Chemung County Nursing Facility in terms of its revenue and finances.
With concerns of increased healthcare costs moving forward, there's been a lot of pressure from both federal and state government to change facilities from public to private operations.
But long-time employees of the nursing home are shocked and saddened that privatizing would even be considered.
"With privatizing the nursing facility, they've got to make a profit somewhere, so of course they're going to cut staff," says nursing home employee Sharon Koski. "They're going to cut other things, so the quality of care is going to go down."
Deputy County Executive, Mike Krusen, says that it's important for all options to be considered. "Again, I think you can impact quality very negatively by having shortfalls in revenue that make you make operational changes you otherwise would prefer not to make. So that's all we're just trying to stay in front of it, work with our employees and make the proper decisions."
At this point in the process, Krusen says the most important things for the public to understand are that no decisions have been made and people's concerns and suggestions are welcomed.
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