Tensions ran high at last night's town hall meeting regarding the much talked about crisis at the Wicomico Nursing Home (WNH). OPEN AGENDA was at the scene, and now we bring you video highlights of the meeting. The 3-hour town hall was attended by an estimated 200 people seeking answers to the problems that developed at the nursing home after a new director was hired by the county executive 5-months ago. This episode focuses on the fiery discussion held between members of a nine-member panel, which included county executive Julie Giordano, state delegate Sheree Sample-Hughs, county council president John Cannon, and WNH's medical director among other stakeholders.
Open Agenda TV S3 E48 Nursing Home Panelist Explain Their Position Part 1 of 2
Show Transcript
Disclaimer: The following transcript was auto-generated and may contain spelling or contextual errors.
You're watching open agenda.
>> Good evening and welcome to the Wcomako
Nursing Home Town Hall meeting. My name
is Dr. Samuel S. Henry III and I'll be
your moderator for this evening. At this
time, we invite Councilwoman Sheni De
Sheni Shields to speak to us about
emergency legislation measures that the
county council has taken as it relates
to oversight of the nursing home.
>> Good evening everybody.
They gave me 3 minutes. I like to talk,
so I'm good. I'm going to try to
condense the emergency legislation bill
number 2026-11.
And this bill came about because we were
getting so many calls about what was
going on at the nursing home and people
wanted to know, the community wanted to
know what the counselor would do. They
were calling us. Uh, I got the first
call about it and I made several calls
that same day. But we come up with an
emergency legislation bill
and this bill is going is to add to
charter 49 county code titled no nursing
home to establish rules and regulations
on the operation of the county nursing
home. the appointment of administrator
for the nursing home and establish a
nursing home commission to aid in
maintaining good government health and
welfare of the county. Now many years
ago before they did the change of of the
government to change it from the council
to the executive they did have a library
board
there hereby created and established the
white comical nursing home commission to
serve in advisory capacity to the
nursing home administrator county
executive and county council and there
will be seven members on the commission.
Um, this is basically a summary of the
emergency legislation. We will be voting
on it in September 8th and I suggest
that some of the people here, come to
the meeting. That's how you learn what's
going on. In order to find out what's
going on, you have to be part of it. You
have to be part of the solution.
>> Thank you, Councilman.
At this time, we invite County Executive
Julie Gerardano to speak about the
Wakamo Nurse Home and implementations of
staff and facility changes that have
occurred.
>> All right, good evening everyone. Um,
this is actually a surprise. I didn't
realize I was going to be in front of
everybody, but that's okay. That's okay.
I have uh I have no problem. Um I am
going to say um for a couple of things.
Um already tonight there have been some
things that have been misspoken about
and I'm really hoping that tonight
serves as a way to serve all of you with
the truth. So first and foremost uh
where I was on Friday at 3:00 I was at
the nursing home with the resident
council. I sat with the residents
and they were happy. You know what they
were happy about? They were happy
because for the first time they got a
warm breakfast.
>> I'm telling you what they said.
>> I'm telling you what they said. Her name
is Miss Bradford. You can go talk to
her.
>> Can we respect Can we respect her time?
>> I'm telling you what she said.
They were happy
>> and I talked to them about you know what
are some other changes and
implementations you would like to see
and a lot of them said we just want to
be out of the news.
>> So anyway when it comes to hiring you
know for the nursing home administrator
okay um when I came in as county
executive there was already an
administrator in place and um I didn't
really know much about the nursing home.
I knew we kind of owned the building. It
was hard to determine what the
operational aspect was. Um, we met with
the previous administrator about four
times a year during budget time, during
our CIP time and which is our capital
improvement. And we were told that
everything was fine. Didn't need
anything. Everything was good.
Everything was good operationally.
Um, when the previous administrator
decided to leave, we brought in a new
administrator that was recommended by
the previous administrator. She wrote a
letter of recommendation, said that she
came highly recommended. We came in, we
met with her, had a great interview,
and after she was put into place, there
were some things that she started to
uncover, some things that maybe weren't
so great. And I'm going to tell you, I
know there are a lot of you, and I know
we'll get into this, but I will tell
you, saying things that people were
terminated without just cause, that's
just simply untrue. As a matter of fact,
the three people who were terminated, I
actually, obviously not going to say any
names, but actually the state was
actually just with the nursing home last
week. If we had not terminated those
three individuals, we would have been
fined. When you abuse and verbally abuse
one of our residents, you no longer have
a job. And I would hope that every
single person in here would want us to
terminate someone who is verbally
abusing your mother, your aunt, or
whoever. These are and we have the
receipts for this. So, this is not me
just saying this. These are not this is
not me making this up. the facts that I
gave at my press conference. And I was
going to say I was actually kind of sad
because the people who had a press
conference uh outside the nursing home
at 11:00 didn't even bother to come to
mine. I have the receipts.
>> Well, I would hope I would hope. But why
wouldn't you want to see both sides? I
am going to tell you I support our
nursing home administrator. I am sorry
that there are changes that were made.
I'm sorry that she has put in policies
that people may not agree with, but I am
going to tell you she has a great
rapport. She had a great rapport with
the state. The state is happy with the
changes that she is making. These will
all come out in the report. Takes a
little bit of time, but these reports
are going to be made available to you. I
think there has been a lot of
misinformation out there, but when I go
out and I talk to those residents and
they're smiling and they're happy,
I mean, I'm not sure I'm not sure what
else I am to do at that point in time.
I'm going to tell you, um, the
legislation with the county council has
a lot of legal issues. A lot. Not
because it's emergency. I don't really
think it needs to be emergency, but it's
okay if they feel it is. But there are
things that are in our charter that they
cannot create legislation and and
violate our charter. And that's what
this legislation does. We all agree
there needs to be oversight. We all
agree there should be some sort of
advisory board or excuse me, executive
board. We all agree with that. But you
can't have the county council handling
the personnel of the county. That's not
how our charter is written. It doesn't
matter who the executive is. Okay? The
county council works two days a month.
They can't be overseeing departments and
entities in our county like that. They
absolutely cannot. And I'm going to tell
you, if they pass this legislation,
there is going to be some legal issues
with it. And I'm not talking about just
from our attorneys. We're talking about
from some of the employees attorneys as
well. So, I really think I don't want to
rush things. I have told them time and
time again, we want transparency. We're
trying to work together. And look, and
this is what I said to the to the
resident council, and I'll wrap up with
this. I promise. The good news is we all
want what is best for that nursing home.
We all would. My staff has invested over
100 hours of HR time, of finance time to
try to help them be successful. We would
not be putting that time and effort into
something if our plan was to sell it or
to privatize it. I would just do it.
really I can't even do it. The council
has to do it with me. So we there's a
whole process that goes with it. We are
not looking to sell the nursing home. We
are not looking to privatize. We again
have put 100 hours of of of employee
time to try to help this administrator
get the nursing home where it needs to
be.
Legislation is key as to having
facilities run by the state and local
government operate without reservation
or issues. We invite Delegate Sheree
Sample Hughes to speak to us about the
legislation that she and her colleagues
have introduced into state legislation.
>> Good evening. Thank you, Sam. Uh such a
pleasure to be here with you on this
evening. Thank you to the watchmen and
all of the partners that are in this
room that it very important to be here
to have this discussion. Um, as your
state legislator, I wanted to make sure
that I could bring you uh up to speed of
specific legislation that actually I
worked on um and actually was able to
pass this past session, which was House
Bill 945.
The reason I want to make sure we lay
the foundation for you to understand is
that the state has the primary oversight
agency or they are the primary agency
that has the oversight of nursing homes
across the state of Maryland whether
it's public or whether it's private and
the office of healthc care quality is
the one that does the initial
oversightes when complaints come in
which falls under your Maryland
Department of Health. With that being
said, while serving in the legislature,
I've heard throughout the years and
throughout the state that there were
concerns in nursing homes and assisted
living facilities for years to the tune
of 9,000 complaints. That was very
concerning to me. And so, I sponsored
House Bill 945. And that bill in
particular, I first drafted it to be a
notification uh piece of legislation.
Meaning that if the state is made aware
of a complaint, it sat there. That was
it, right? And then they would do
whatever research they needed to do. My
feeling behind it was that we need to
bring it on down to a local level. We
need to make sure that we include our
local health department. with having
that additional level of oversight, that
additional knowledge, it really spoke
volumes to the fact that we might be
able to utilize our local resources to
address maybe some issues that are in
our local nursing homes. With that being
said, it became a partnership. The
legislation is now in the process of a
task force being underway. they will um
convene and provide interim report to
the general assembly as well as the
governor in uh December 1st, 2027 and
then the final report in December 1st,
2028. And then we'll conclude their work
in June of 2029.
>> And with that being said, I I spoke with
Councilwoman Shield. She called me one
day. I was already in the park and lot
at the nursing home and she said it's
getting ready to be sold with
conversations about it being sold. Well,
I've been down that that playback a
playbook before when I was on the county
council with a previous county
executive. I said, "Oh, no. We're not
going to do it. We're going to do what
we're doing tonight. We're going to
stand up and we're going to fight." Fast
forwarding, here we are. We pulled
together to say, "Okay, the
infrastructure, the building itself may
not be sold, but the the the systems and
the services are being dismantled and
they're being outsourced." And that is
concerning to me. We have to maintain
the level of quality and care in this
community and yes why Comic County
Nursing Home is the best and I want it
to stay the best and that's why I do
want to see
and that is why I want to ensure I was
on close and on long but I want to
ensure that if the county council has a
role to play then play it. make it with
the county council adopting this
legislation and providing another layer
of oversight for our people. And and
when I heard tonight, you know, that our
residents are the first hot meal, that's
not true. That's not true. I can't
stand.
>> So, thank you for listening to me. We
have to continue to fight. And yes,
there are concerns and that's why we're
here tonight.
>> Thank you, Delegate.
Our
comic nursing home has always had great
care and professionalism for our family
members in the past. In part goes to the
partnerships of other community
partners. We invite Miss Wendy Kaplan to
speak to us about the vital partnership
that her church offers to the residents
of the Wakcomo Nursing Home.
>> Good evening.
My name is Wendy Katherine. four weeks
ago when I stood before the Wcomo County
Council explaining just what the WCOM
nursing home means to me and my family
and some concerns I had. Little did I
know I would be sitting here tonight
>> to continue to advocate for the
residents and staff.
>> Yeah.
>> First and foremost, I want to make it
perfectly clear
>> that I am not a politician,
>> nor do I aspire to be.
I'm not here as a Democrat, a
Republican,
>> or an independent.
At the August 4th meeting and first
thing the next morning, it was
apparently clear this was going to be
political.
And yes, political on both sides.
Let me be perfectly clear again.
I'm not a politician. If you ever hear
somebody say that Wendy Kaplan is
running,
you better run too cuz something big's
chasing me. Okay, just so you know, my
intentions are still the same as they
were on August 4th. And that's the
residents and the staff of the Wcom
Nursing Home. I would like to clarify a
few things though um that was said and I
also want to go about um it was said
that the that the uh activities were
stopped. Well, I would like to clarify
that by stating that the activities have
not been stopped so to speak or the
snacks. There's just not enough staff to
get them down there for the activities.
And before I go into some other facts, I
would like to read the definition of the
word illusion. A false image, idea, or
sensory experience that tricks your
brain into believing something that is
not real or correct.
It was stated at the press conference
that only three employees have been
terminated. That's a fact. I agree with
that. However, what was failed to be
mentioned since April, the medical
director, who was slated to leave later
in the year is chosen to leave earlier.
The director of nursing's last day will
be September 11th. The dietician
resigned. The MSD uh the MDS coordinator
resigned. The part-time MDS consultant
resigned. A GNA evening shift resigned
last week. A GNA daytime shift resigned
a few weeks ago. An environmental
services worker is retiring. I find it
hard to believe that someone new came in
and made some changes and everyone got
mad.
>> I've been with my employer for over 37
years. I've seen many, many changes. I
too started out using good old paper and
pencil. Today we have the most
up-to-date technology there is. But each
and every time a change was made, we
were told of the change, told why the
change was happening, and we were
assured they would be there to train us
and see us through those changes. I'm
very curious to know how this was
handled by the new administrator.
Another fact was touted about how the
new administrator had gotten warning
mats for the food trays because food was
just coming out cold and wrapped in
plastic. Now, I was there most every
evening at dinnertime for my mother and
aunt. There were three huge warming
carts and the food was on a tray with a
dome covered just like they have over at
the hospital and a plate was covered for
the entree. And yes, cold things like
pie, cut up fruit, cake, pudding, and
wrap were wrapped in plastic wrap. They
are cold foods. Many times I had to go
get ice for my mom and her roommates to
put in their soups and coffee because it
was too hot.
>> In my research, I have learned a few of
the warmers had not been working and
they are very expensive to replace and
these war new mats were purchased. And
that's nice. That's great. But the
illusion was that all food was wrapped
in plastic and cold under the previous
administration. And then I also it was
about $1.8 million in uncollected funds
from Medicaid. That's a lot of money.
>> I I'm going to tell you, you see this
packet of paper here?
>> Uhhuh.
>> This packet of paper, you see how thick
it is? That's what a family has to get
together and submit to social services.
Not only was my mother there,
>> my aunt was there and I happened to be I
happened to be her power of attorney.
>> There were two differences. My mother
didn't have a whole lot. Okay, my aunt
had some money. We all know, if you
don't know,
>> in order to be Medicaid eligible, you
can only have $2,500 in assets.
Okay? $2,500.
Okay, this includes any property that
you may own. This includes any any uh
anything any asset your life insurance
is considered an asset. So what I had to
do with my aunt is I had to spend down
that money. She was self-pay. Okay,
every month I wrote a check to the Wcoma
nursing home. And I thank God for the
Wcoma nursing home because I will tell
you it was worth every dime. every
young.
>> So about a month before I knew that her
money would be spent down to meet that
eligibility requirement of $2,500.
I went to the billing department
and and and the social service social
worker at Wycom nursing home. I said,
"Okay, I need to apply. Let's apply." So
I applied it. You have to get five
years. You have to go look back. Five
years. Did it. Here's five years worth
right here. That's everything. Bank
statements, everything.
Did that. Got the packet ready. Took it
in.
They sent it over to the Wcomo County
Department of Social Services. I got a
call the next day. Uh they had some
questions. The the social, you know,
person answered those questions. cuz
they needed another form and I got it
in. Okay, that is the last I have heard.
Okay,
I have called my my I'm going to tell
you this. It's going to blow your mind.
Uh my aunt's been dead a year, over a
year. It'll be two years in September.
I've never got a letter yet from whether
she was denied or whether she was
approved.
Stacy was wonderful from the billing
office. She helped me for about I guess
we went through it for about 8 months.
We were calling and it's in process.
It's in process. It's in process. And I
tell you all this to say I called Friday
once I heard this the $1.8 million in
uncollected funds. Okay? I called and I
was on hold and I was on hold and I
listened to that music and I was on
hold. But I hung in there and guess what
I was told?
>> It's in process. So, so please don't
blame Why ComicCon Nursing Home for not
getting the money to school. You call
the state of Maryland on that one
because I'm sure if it happened to my
aunt Jill, I'm sure it's happened to
thousands of others.
>> I digress. Let me go on. See, I don't
think the full facts were really
explained at the press conference. I
believe politics got in the way. I hear
that there are many many people from the
executive's office who come and do daily
at that have been there daily since
August 4th at the nursing home
>> since concerns were raised. I have one
question. When a bullet went through the
front door of the nursing home on
October 16th, 2025, how many of these
same people that seem to be so concerned
about the residents went to check on
them or the staff? I can answer that.
No.
No.
After all,
and I'll say it about the council, too.
I'm not just talking about the executive
office. No. And if you And I know what
I'm talking about cuz you asked the
staff. You asked the staff how many
people went over and checked over after
that.
After all,
>> after all,
>> it wasn't this close to an election.
Thank you.
>> All right. At this time, we're going to
ask Mr. John Cannon, president of a
Wakcom County Council, if he had any
remarks. Thank you, Mr. Henry. I
remember you spoke here on public
comments. We appreciate your words at
that time. Thank you. Like to thank the
First Baptist Church and Pastor Watson
for your uh for your bring helping to
put this together. Always a great job in
your community. Like I thank the
community also for being here and making
making sure that everybody in this
community knows how important this is to
the community.
It was because of the community that the
council first found out that we had a
serious problem. We did not know until
we had about 20 people come to the
council meeting. This is what it's for.
This is what a county council is for.
For people to be able to come to the to
government and say, "We have a problem
or we'd like to see something
addressed." And that's that's what the
that's what's so great about having the
opportunity to work on this body as a
county council. So, the people came in.
a lot of a lot of and and just as you've
heard here very eloquent speaking
absolutely I'm so so surprised just
off the top of their head it's fantastic
so the council after the meeting and
after after and it was at least 10:00 it
may have been 11 so back in uh in
chambers I talked to the county county
county attorney who's an excellent
county attorney Bob Benson said Bob what
are we going to do and he goes well John
we can we can work on a few
uh we can look at possibly create a
charter amendment
>> to put some oversight into this
situation.
>> I said, "Well, Bob, that's going to take
too long. As the process works, it would
go probably passed into November.
Actually, would have to go on the ballot
in November before a decision could even
be made. Are there any other options?"
He's a good attorney. He said, "John,"
and this is what you need to understand
when they talk about this legislative
bill being a violation of the county
charter. The nursing home is not in the
county charter
>> at all.
So, there's nothing wrong with this
legislative bill. We were challenged by
the fact that this is emergency
legislation. You can't justify it as
emergency legislation. I just ask you,
what is more important? What is a
greater emergency than taking care of
the elderly and the community?
Well, my point being is that what we
decided to do is to the legislative bill
will amend the county code. That way we
can get it done immediately. And by
going through emergency legislation, we
can get it done months in advance of
what we could do before because we
recognize the sense of urgency. So
that's what's on the table. That's what
Shaneie read to you earlier. So, what we
want to try to do is create a board or
um it's either a board or it's a
commission, one or the other, that's
going to have oversight, segment members
who are professionals who can go into
the nursing home or talk with the staff
or the administrator say what's going
on, how are your finances? We don't want
to hear this last minute in these
meetings or peace meal at any other
press conferences that the finances are
bad or or the conditions are general.
You don't need that. You need a board of
directors or a commission to keep track
of this on a regular basis. So that's
what this legislative bill will do. The
legislative bill also allows oversight
on behalf of the executive and the
legislative branch. The reason that is
so important because as I said before
the legislative branch is where everyone
in this community gets to participate.
So that's what this that's what this
bill will do as well. So that's what you
have before you. This is what we're
going to be passing in our next meeting.
This was voted on and I hope once this
is voted on. It's a legislative bill.
It was voted on. The introduction was
unanimous.
I don't know if it would be unanimous
when we actually pass the bill itself at
this next meeting, but keep in mind any
legislative bill can be vetoed by the
executive.
>> I don't know why this bill would be
vetoed by the executive. It's been
stated it's been stated that we may it's
been stated that we might face some type
of litigation. There are no families. I
don't think there are any families that
are going to sue the county council for
this
>> legislative bill that creates oversight
and transparency.
>> If we're going to get sued, we're going
to get sued by the state of Maryland
because we don't have enough employees.
>> We're going to get sued.
If we're going to get sued, heaven
forbid we're going to get sued by any
unfortunate patient.
that has some type of an injury or fall.
These are the you have to be you have to
take care of and if they find out that
any any type of injury has occurred
within the next even the next two weeks
or the next two months.
The county is subject to serious
litigation
>> because we did not act fast enough to
protect those individuals.
I'm not concerned about, you know, the
the suggestion that there may be we may
get sued by individuals or families. I
don't see that happening.
Keep one thing in mind, too. When you
have a veto of a legislative bill, it
takes a super majority, five members of
the county council to override that
veto. We already have seven. So, why are
you going to veto it?
That's about all I have to say. Um,
we're just trying to get objective
oversight by people who are very
knowledgeable and understand the
business as well. I want a board to tell
me exactly what's how things need to be
done, how they need to be changed.
Individually, no different than these
people right here. I put anybody here
right on the on that board today.
So that's all I have. We presented a
legislative bill. We did it with
emergency legislation to get it done as
quick as possible because we listened to
the community and we're acting on behalf
of the community. I want this to go
through. I'm going to get it passed. I
don't want any veto. I want to be able
to say we're ready to go. We're going to
have a committee done and within let's
say a month or 6 weeks, we're back on
track.
Thank you.
So, as we close with a call to action,
we want to again thank our lead
organization, Watchmen with One Voice
Caucus of African-American Leaders, the
W Caprico County branch of the NAACP,
other community partners. We would like
to especially thank the Watchmen with
one voice for their generous donation
for radio advertisement about our town
hall with the two different radio
stations.
