The daily Astorian., April 25, 2016, Page 10A, Image 10

10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2016
Care center: ‘This is rough’
Continued from Page 1A
the center’s support staff,
though not in the nursing staff
“because we need them; that’s
where the shortage is,” she
said.
Some of the employees
may get transferred to other
district sites.
“We really want to retain
as many people as we can
within the health district,”
Mandy Brenchley, the care
center administrator, said.
The Clatsop Care Health
District oversees Clatsop
Care Center, Clatsop Retire-
ment Village in Astoria and
Clatsop Memory Care Cen-
ter in Warrenton, and pro-
vides in-home care through-
out the community. The
district encompasses all of
the county except the cit-
ies of Gearhart, Seaside and
Cannon Beach.
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Clatsop Care Center.
‘So this
building is a
contributing
factor in how
costly it is to
operate this
business,
and that is
the reason
why we are
looking at a
new, smaller
facility.’
‘Very hard work’
The steady decline in cer-
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put increasing pressure on
the center’s staff, and led the
facility to roll back the num-
ber of residents it can accept.
In 2011, the center served
an average of 60 residents
— including both long- and
short-term care residents —
though it is licensed to serve
more than 70.
The center began this
month with 40 residents,
which requires the equiva-
lent of 25.5 full-time certi-
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because the center had only
18.5, the number of short-
term residents — the peo-
ple recovering from surgery
or other health issues — has
been temporarily reduced
so staff can focus on long-
term care residents, bringing
the total resident population
down to 30.
The center plans to raise
the short-term resident popu-
lation to 12 by July — both
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cially and to continue provid-
ing the rehab service for the
community.
“This has been an issue
for us, to staff this building,
for some time. We’ve been
working on it pretty aggres-
sively since 2013,” Williams
said at a meeting Saturday.
Though the center is currently
in compliance with state reg-
ulations, “we’ve actually had
some citations from the state
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A combination of factors
has brought about the scar-
city, Brenchley said.
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ing assistants view the job
as a way to gain experience
before continuing their nurs-
ing education, or as a step-
ping stone to a higher posi-
tion or better paying job. “It’s
not a destination profession,
if you know what I mean,”
Brenchley said.
Some Clatsop Care Center
employees have been let go
for performance issues.
“We do want to maintain
a certain standard, and when
employees fall below that
standard — whether we’re
desperate for those positions
or not — we do feel it’s nec-
essary to terminate employ-
ment when needed in order to
prevent negative outcomes in
care,” she said.
Employee burnout is
another issue. “It’s hard
work,” she said. “It’s very
hard work.”
Statewide shortage
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tants are not unique to Clat-
sop Care Center.
“I think they are more pro-
nounced because we are a rural
community, but I know this is
happening all over the state of
Oregon,” Brenchley said.
Seaside School District Superintendent Doug Dougherty
and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden behind Seaside High School.
Nicole Williams
CEO at Clatsop Care Center
higher, to get the help that
they need,” he said.
Crow added that “they’ve
done a great job” with his
mother.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
“I’m really kind of heart-
Nicole Williams, the CEO at Clatsop Care Center, speaks during
broken that they have to
a meeting with residents and their families on Saturday.
decrease the number of res-
Statewide, “fewer and nation, including Oregon, idents because it’s the only
fewer people are actively ZLOOKDYHGLI¿FXOW\UHFUXLWLQJ (nursing home) in the area,”
seeking long-term care as and retaining these workers he said.
Brenchley knows how he
a career,” she said. “It’s not unless working conditions —
really a profession that peo- including wages and fringe feels.
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“This is rough. This is an
ple actively seek out.”
awful thing to go through,”
The Clatsop Care Health
she said, “and I think it’s a
District is looking to join
‘Heartbroken’
a workforce coalition with
At Saturday’s well-at- shame for our community.
Clark, Clackamas and Mult- tended meeting, Williams It’s a shame for the residents
QRPDKFRXQWLHVWR¿JXUHRXW said the health district will we’re serving, and it’s sad
how to attract more people to continue working to recruit for our staff to watch and go
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staff and ensure the remain- through.”
The health district board ing residents receive good
has regularly approved wage care.
Building for sale
increases, and Clatsop Care
If Clatsop Care doesn’t
The health district’s board
gives a few scholarships scale down, “the worst-case is looking to sell the Clat-
every academic term for stu- scenario is we will have to sop Care Center building and
GHQWV WR EHFRPH FHUWL¿HG DW close, because we would risk replace it with a new one in a
Clatsop Community College losing our Medicaid license,” separate location.
in exchange for working at she said. “We would risk los-
“We have been approached
the center after graduation.
ing our license for the build- by one very interested person
But these efforts to recruit ing from the state, and that that wants to buy the building.
and retain staff only go so would be a problem.”
We have been approached by
far, especially with Colum-
The residents who leave others that are, I would say,
bia Memorial Hospital, Prov- the nursing home will be semi-interested in buying
idence Seaside Hospital and placed in proper care envi- the building,” Williams said.
other care settings nearby. “As ronments, Williams said.
“They are only conversations
the hospitals expand in this
“I’m from the community, at this point.”
community, we’re struggling so it’s really hard, because I
If the district ends up sell-
WRKLUHLQWKLV¿HOG´:LOOLDPV know a lot of these families. ing the building, the district
said. “We’re competing with And, especially when we’re would seek to lease it from
the hospitals, and we don’t pay taking care of their loved the buyer long enough to con-
as well as the hospitals.”
ones, you build that relation- struct the new care center and
The current pay for cer- ship with them. So it’s gonna transfer remaining residents.
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“We do not want to have
Clatsop Care Center begins
After delivering the tough a gap in service for our resi-
at less than $12 an hour and news, Williams and Brench- dents,” she said.
goes up to more than $15 an ley received a sudden — and
When the new building is
hour (the 2014 state median much appreciated — round of up and running, “we estimate
for direct care workers at applause from the residents it’ll save us about 30 percent
nursing homes); their aver- and their family members.
in operational costs,” she said.
age wage at the center is
“I just want to say, the
Last year, Clatsop Care’s
about $13. Clatsop Care Cen- care’s been beautiful,” Ron elevators broke down and
ter also pays for all of the Meyer, who has lived at the cost nearly $100,000 to
nurses’ medical, dental and center for three years, told repair. She estimated that
vision care.
them. “Wonderful, as far as the building has between
According to a study con- I’m concerned.”
$500,000 and $800,000 in
ducted for the state Depart-
Mike Crow, a Hammond deferred maintenance and
ment of Human Services and resident whose 89-year-old capital improvement costs.
published in January 2015, mother, Donna, has lived at
“So this building is a con-
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Clatsop Care for about two tributing factor in how costly
Statistics “estimates the need years, said the center needs it is to operate this business,
for an additional 1.3 million WR¿QGDZD\WRUDLVHZDJHV and that is the reason why we
direct care worker positions
“Somehow they gotta are looking at a new, smaller
between 2012 and 2022. The ¿JXUH RXW KRZ WR JHW WKDW facility,” Williams said.
Wyden: He plans
to take Seaside’s
message back to
Washington, D.C.
Continued from Page 1A
Most of Oregon’s other
coastal towns have some kind
of elevation, Dougherty said,
providing some protection.
Federal studies only plan
for 38-foot tsunami waves,
but studies by the Oregon
Department of Geology and
Mineral Industries found
past tsunamis scaled 80 feet.
“If the federal govern-
ment doesn’t get the heights
right, that’s going to affect
everything else,” Wyden
said. “As I understand it,
Doug Dougherty is trying to
plan for real world circum-
stances, not for some mythi-
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Wyden,
the
rank-
ing member of the Senate
Finance Committee, said he
would seek predisaster and
Federal Emergency Man-
agement Agency funds.
“What really needs to
improve is the judgments
of members of Congress in
terms of priorities, and that’s
my job,” the Oregon Demo-
crat said.
Wyden said he sees rais-
ing the issue of tsunami
awareness as a national one.
“Seaside would be dif-
ferent than a small commu-
nity in the Midwest or some-
thing on the East Coast,”
Wyden said. “Disasters are
something where Congress
comes together and says,
‘We’ve got to come together
in terms of preventative
medicine.’”
Wyden said he plans to
take Seaside’s message back
to Washington, D.C.
“There’s nothing better
than coming out and seeing
something like this,” Wyden
said. “Otherwise you’re just
reading government reports
and talking about this in the
abstract.”
Gearhart: City
Council’s decision
could be appealed
it’s gone, it’s gone. You can’t
replace that.”
coming in met the condi-
The grocery is owned by
tions that were required,” Molly and Terry Lowenberg
City Administrator Chad of Sum Properties in Seaside.
Sweet said. “The appeal is
In submissions to the
based on the fact that peo- Planning
Commission,
ple think they did not meet they told the city competi-
those requirements and tion outside Gearhart made
there may not be a need for WKHLU EXVLQHVV XQSUR¿WDEOH
this type of restaurant in “Understandably
people
town.”
want to keep their market,”
In March, planning com- Sweet said. “That withstand-
missioners voted 4-3 to OK ing, you can’t force some-
the transition of Gearhart one to keep a business that
*URFHU\ DW 3DFL¿F :D\ they don’t want to continue
to a brew pub.
to do.”
The city’s comprehen-
The City Council has
sive plan indicates stores in decided to hear the case
the city’s central zone should on May 3 de novo, “which
“provide needed supporting means all over again,” Sweet
services to the locals or resi- said. “It’s another opportu-
dent community,” opponents nity for someone to make a
to the brew pub plan state in different decision.”
the appeal.
The decision of the coun-
“It’s tragic,” Mark said. cil could be appealed to the
“It’s a whole sensibility state’s Land Use Board of
that’s being dismissed. Once Appeals.
Continued from Page 1A
‘It’s tragic. It’s a whole
sensibility that’s being
dismissed.’
Jeanne Mark
one of those who signed the appeal to a Planning Commission
decision to grant a conditional use permit to the brew pub
Bisping: Curriculum will be based on the Montessori method
Continued from Page 1A
The center had been on
the verge of closing before,
in 2011, after years of losses,
when it received an infusion
from the city.
Despite a prestigious three-
star rating early this year for its
commitment to quality learn-
ing from Oregon’s Quality
Rating and Improvement Sys-
tem, the center shut its doors.
Bisping, who lives in Gear-
hart with her husband Bran-
don, a 16-month-old daughter
and 12-year-old niece, sud-
denly found herself out of a
job.
She developed a concept
— Gearhart Kids Academy
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offering infant, toddler, full-
day and half-day programs for
children six weeks to 12 years
old.
Bisping secured a build-
ing on U.S. Highway 101 at
the former site of North Coast
Realty and took out a personal
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dream.
She said she sees a niche
for the new center.
Curriculum will be based
on the Montessori method and
the Creative Curriculum for
preschoolers.
“I don’t really believe
in electronic toys,” Bisping
said. “I think there should be
purposeful play, purposeful
items. That’s where the Mon-
tessori inspiration comes. It’s
very much arts, clay, bring-
ing things outdoors inside.
But there will be play, too,
because that’s important for
social development.”
Hours will be from
7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. “We
hope to have kids going all
day long,” she said.
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choices.
There were four teachers at
Cannon Beach Preschool, but
“right now I can only take one
of them, Susan James, who
was there the longest, four
years,” Bisping said. “But my
goal would be to take all four
of them. They’re all wonder-
ful, so it’s very hard.”
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monthly basis — “very com-
petitive to the other children’s
center that’s in town, a little bit
less,” she said.
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emergency medical service,
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percent discount on tuition.
Capacity will be 46. School
starts May 2.
— R.J. Marx