Deseret makes its case for purchase -- in open session
By MIKE CORN
WaKEENEY -- Questions about the purchase of the Lutheran Nursing Home in WaKeneey were asked and answered Friday, but it was evident that employees and residents and their spouses still prefer county ownership.
"I would ask the commission to rethink the decision to sell to Deseret, to keep it locally owned," nursing home administrator Sandy Cline urged Trego County commissioners Friday.
Friday's exchange between employees and Dennis Cunningham, Deseret Health Group's director of special projects, was at times confrontational, but it was in open session.
"You're going to lose lots of employees and residents," one woman said as she left the meeting.
Cunningham returned to WaKeeney to attend Friday's Trego County Commission meeting after it was determined that an exchange -- concerning the sale of the as-yet purchased nursing home -- had improperly been conducted in closed session.
Under Kansas law, commissioners can talk about the purchase of real estate in closed session, but any talk about selling property must be done in public.
Because the commissioners essentially are retracing their steps on the sale of the nursing home, Commission Chairman Herb Swartzkopf said no decision on the sale will be made until at least June 9.
Commissioners tentatively have agreed to purchase the financially troubled nursing home from its bondholder for $250,000, and plans to then immediately sell it to Deseret for $300,000. Bonds outstanding on the home amount to about $850,000.
Deseret's ownership of other nursing homes in Kansas was at the heart of Friday's discussion, which was moved to the courtroom to ensure room for everyone. Despite moving the meeting, only a few additional people turned out compared to a week ago when the meetings error was discovered.
Bottom line, Cunningham said that Deseret -- or whoever would purchase the nursing home -- would have to make it a self-sustaining operation.
But much of the focus at the meeting was on Deseret's operations elsewhere in Kansas, such as Colby, Kensington and Smith Center.
Questions were raised, and partially answered, about problems with administrators at Colby.
And there were questions about low occupancy at some of the homes, although Cunningham said in some cases was simply the result of the home's design rather than function.
Essentially, some of the older homes had rooms for three and four residents each, rather than private or semi-private rooms.
At Kensington, he said, Deseret took over about a year ago.
At that time, occupancy was in the mid teens. Now, he said, it's in the upper 20s.
While much of the meeting focused on the inner-workings of nursing home management, Cunningham did quell several concerns.
"Is Colby going to close?" he asked, in response to a question. "It's never been discussed."
In fact, he said, Deseret has put nearly $350,000 into the center to modernize it.
"Whether you want to believe it or not, we're good neighbors," he said.
"I'd be $200,000 to $300,000 better off if I would have closed the facility."
Ultimately, the discussion turned to jobs -- and their security -- in WaKeeney.
Cunningham refuted the notion that there would be widespread changes.
"Will someone get fired?" he asked. "Probably, because some people won't like how I do things."
Cunningham did say that he likes the proposal of installing an Alzheimer's unit in Wakeeney.
"To me, it makes tremendous sense," he said. "Sitting here right now it would be my desire to do Alzheimer's and skilled" nursing.
But, a nursing home has to be self-sustaining, he reiterated.
The most contentious part of the meeting came when Cunningham was talking about the need to cut some employee hours to make the WaKeeney home profitable.
He said that by teaching and consolidating, "we make people more efficient and able to do the same job in less time."
That was greeted with skepticism.
"You don't know what I'm going to do," Cunningham responded.
"No, I don't know what you're going to do," said Cline, the home's current administrator. 'Those are my fears."
Cline, a proponent of the home becoming county owned, supported by a mill levy, asked if the county had looked elsewhere for a purchaser.
"The county did not go to him," Trego County Clerk Lori Augustine said, "he came to us."
"I'm afraid it's moving too fast," Cline said.
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