Nursing home stuns auditors
By Edie Johnson
GOSHEN — The county-owned nursing home has stunned auditors, who are calling its rebound "highly unusual."
"It's a highlight for us," said Anthony Morrone of his final analysis of Valley View nursing home for 2014.
Morrone is with Horan, Martello, and Morrone, a firm that audits nursing facilities, and presented his report to the county legislature's Health and Mental Health Committee last month.
Valley View's cost to taxpayers, for the entire year, amounted to $2.5 million. That's a small fraction of the $30 million that the former county executive, Edward Diana, had predicted it would cost as he campaigned hard to sell the nursing home to a private buyer. That effort had been taken up with equal vigor by the current executive, Steve Neuhaus, who said the home would be a continual drain on the county's finances.
Valley View's performance has left the county with a $11.9 million surplus that was budgeted for Valley View but never spent.
The auditors said the finances of most nursing homes change very little from year to year. Over the past three years at Valley View, the changes are striking:
2011: $8,467,025 budgeted, with $357,443 shortfall
2012: $15,872,429 budgeted, with $6.9 million surplus
2013: $9,183,844 budgeted, with $4.8 million surplus
2014: $2,512,338 budgeted, with $11.9 million surplus
Morrone said that, of the 31 publicly owned facilities in the state, Valley View ranks fourth in its Case Mix Index, a measure of treatment planning tied to reimbursement.
"They rank in the top half of even proprietary (privately owned) facilities," he said. "This is impressive. We simply have not seen results like this in a public facility."
Diana appointed the current administrator, Laurence LaDue, in early 2013, after he terminated the county’s contract with the outgoing administrator, Orange Administrative Services. In 2012, a legislative investigative committee issued a damning report of OAS’s management, accusing OAS of running the nursing home’s finances into the ground.
"Two years ago we said 'Let's turn this around, let's show New York State how to do it right," said Legislator Mike Anagnostakis of New Windsor, chair of Health and Mental Health Committee and one of Valley View's greatest advocates during its recent struggles. "Well, now we have done it."
What has made the difference?Committee members said they are inspired to look more closely at what has made such a difference, beyond LaDue's skillful management. Some legislators want either another investigation of how Valley View operated during the Diana years, or to revisit the investigative committee's reports from 2012.
They also want to know what happens to the surplus money, since it goes into what is called an "enterprise fund" that never seems to be used. Why is it, they asked, that no matter how big the surplus, the funds are not accessible. They agreed to put the question to the Finance Department, the only department with access to the numbers.
The county's director of operations, Harry Porr, said legislators are acknowledging that the numbers have been getting better since Steve Neuhaus took office. Despite what some people think, he said, he and Neuhaus "do go there from time to time to see how things are going.”
Neuhaus' effort to sell the home is not yet over, however. The county executive's appeal of the most recent court decision upholding the legislature's decision not to sell the facility was heard by an appellate panel in Brooklyn several months ago, but no decision has yet been announced.
Roseanne Sullivan (D-Crawford) wants to preserve the reputation of the nursing home by focusing on the positive. She suggested that Neuhaus honor outstanding Valley View employees at monthly legislative sessions to boost their morale and spread the word about the excellent care they offer.
Monthly “Friends and Family” sessions are held at Valley view to brainstorm new and exciting activities for residents. A “News and Civic Discussion” evening combined with a weeklong celebration of nurses was a hit, and included Game Day, a Talent Show, and their famous annual pie-eating contest. Plans are in the way for indoor and outdoor gardening.