Tensions ran high at last night's town hall meeting regarding the much talked about crisis at the Wicomico Nursing Home (WNH). The 3-hour town hall was attended by an estimated 200 people seeking answers to the problems that developed at the nursing home. The pressure went up even further in this episode when members of the public were given the opportunity to address county executive Julie Giordano and the other panelists. In the final analysis, everyone's voice was heard, many truths were revealed and a great deal of misinformation was debunked.
Open Agenda TV S3 E49 County Executive Answers to the Public over Nursing Home Complaints
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 Wakamako
Nursing Home Town Hall meeting. My name
is Dr. Samuel S. Henry the third and
I'll be your moderator for this evening.
>> At this time, we invite County Executive
Julie Gerardano to speak about the Wcomo
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, 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. And Mr. Yuri's in the
back. He his his wife is in the room
with my mother. We bring the trays
sometime to our family members. I open
up the container. It's a little burgundy
container. The phone is warm.
So, I can't stand by that. So, thank
you.
>> 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.
>> Not mention the people's name in the
nursing homes in front of all these
people.
>> Okay. All these people.
>> Yep.
>> That heard this lady's name that said to
you the food was cold. Yeah.
>> And it's wrapped in place.
>> Yes.
>> See, then then you start a community
commotion.
>> That's it.
>> Okay. So, I'm just saying that, you
know, for the next time, you know, that
you keep that underneath your belt.
>> 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.
>> And I will correct what you said. I've
never met with the executive. There was
never a quarter meeting
>> actually. Um,
I believe in 22 when you came into
office, we invited you to an open house.
>> Um 22
and uh you came with your associates
assistants and we were still in CO so we
all had to mask
and you came in and you said I'm not
wearing a mask
>> and I said you have to
>> we're mandated.
>> And you said well we're not staying. So,
you walked the length of the building
>> and you left.
>> And I left April 3rd of this year and
you never came back in the building when
I was there.
>> You never you have now didn't come back
in when I was there.
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. I
could go on other things have been said
that are true, but I'm not going to go
on to anything else but the things that
were mentioned. Oh, the recommendation.
I will say that uh she was the only one
that applied for the position. Uh her
her her name was given to me by another
employee
uh who said she had known her for a
couple of years. She did interim work. I
knew she was a respiratory therapist. I
said, "Okay." So, I don't know who
checked her references. That wasn't my
responsibility. Bunky did ask me to
write a a note, which I did, to say that
I'd never worked with her, that um I
understood she was a seasoned um
administrator and she was a respiratory
therapist. Now, I don't consider that
high praise. That's just qualifications.
And I'm going to leave it at that. 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.
>> 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. And I would
like to add in my research, there is an
employee employee who has an upcoming
interview for another job and one
employee who just interviewed for
another job. Also, another environmental
services worker resigned today.
When you add these 11 to the three, the
fact that there were three terminated,
that's a total of 14.
I don't know about other people, but I
feel like I feel like that is a lot.
That's a lot since April. Instead of
stating that they are just disgruntled
employees, the question should be why
are they disgruntled employees?
eight 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. Another person was
terminated because they did not file an
incident report in a timely fashion.
What I have in my hand
is my termination letter.
My termination letter actually says that
on July the 16th, Dolores Peters Peters
Jones, my name is Dolores Jones Peters
for the record. A don RN. was on call
for the nursing department at
approximately 7:21. You were informed
that a resident had fallen from a
wheelchair briefly lost consciousness
and exhibited during their seizure
elect.
Emergency medical services were
dispatched. The physician was notified
and the resident's power attorney was
informed. Done. That's exactly how we
handle it. That's exactly
kudos to my nurses.
It says that you did not notify the
director of nursing up there or the
nursing home administrator of the
incident on July 16th. Unfortunately,
our administrator is not clinical and
she does not come to the clinical
meeting. However, this information was
given
that morning at approximately 9:05 it
was reported.
There is no policy that says that
Dolores or anyone that's on call is
supposed to let the administrator know
face to face. Unfortunately, even at
that time on that day, the administrator
already had a target on my back because
I did have a private conversation with
her. I did let her know some things that
I just wanted some answers to. Open door
policy. Open door policy is that you can
come in and you can have a conversation
>> without retaliation,
without having a target on your back,
>> without being harassed, without anything
else being said. It's a and I do have my
termination that actually says the
statement was submitted to on July the
23rd. The DO placed you on suspension in
the presence of administrator and
training and instructed you to submit a
written statement that day to both the
DO and the NHA. You did not submit the
statement to the NHA as directed. Never
spoke with her, never seen her, and it
was never said that there was a deadline
to the timeline.
The statement was submitted
to the ADON on July the 24th, one day
after the deadline.
Submitted to the ADOM. Well, at that
time I was the AD.
These are not this is not me making this
up. the facts that I gave at my press
conference. And I was gonna say I was
actually kind of sad because the people
who had a press conference uh outside
the nursing home at 11 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 and 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.
>> It's been stated that we might face some
type of litigation. There are no
families I don't think there 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.
If we're going to get sued, heaven and
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 it. 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.
>> 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.
I'm Mike Goldberg with uh Open Agenda TV
and uh I'm very glad for the opportunity
to ask the question. I was not afforded
that courtesy on Friday by the county
executive for a press conference, but my
question is specifically for you, not
the executive. Um you have alluded on at
least two occasions that you may pursue
legal action without having even seen
the proposed emergency legislation. Now,
there's a little bit of a history here
briefly. You've sued the council
previously because you didn't get your
way with the hiring of the uh director
of administration.
>> Can we stay on topic?
>> Uh my time, not yours, man.
>> So, you had
several years ago there you sued the
county council uh for to because you
didn't get your way with hiring Matt
Lysil. It went all the way to the
appellet court. It cost at least tens of
thousands if not six figures is what it
cost county taxpayers. Now I'm my
question is is what is the cost limit
that you will impose pursuing the
council if you don't get your way with
this emergency legislation? Thank you.
But when you give the county council the
ability to handle personnel when our
charter doesn't allow for that, then the
administrator has the ability to sue and
has met with an attorney already.
>> I wanted to know anyone there that knows
this new administration,
>> okay,
>> if they could answer if people like
myself are going to be allowed to go in
and help these people.
>> Okay. So my thought process here is that
that's a question um for the county
executive. She hired the administrator
and that's the only person up here who
can make that uh call and so the
administrator really should have been
here. She did receive an invitation to
be here tonight to be asking questions
or answering questions. Um but at this
juncture it would have been your county
executive.
>> Can can we can we respect
responses?
Yeah, sure. Absolutely. And actually, I
really wish I could. I don't I do not
know how to run a nursing home. I've
never thought that I could run a nursing
home. Um, but I will ask actually
Matthew, who is um our um our uh
director of health uh for the county. Is
there any sort of legal uh ramification
if somebody was to come in that is not
an employee? I don't know what that
answer is.
>> That's why I said I have them signed.
>> Right. Yeah. Right. And I'm not sure
what that answer is. I I think that
that's more I mean of a state situation.
Matthew, do you have any thoughts on
this?
>> That's really going to be a OHCQ
question and the operations of the
administrator to to make that that
decision.
>> Yes, sir.
>> Hello. My name is uh Dan McHugh. I live
in uh Dorchester County in Cambridge. Um
I currently work in healthcare a little
bit right now as a a specimen collector.
And yes, it is true. The the private
world of healthcare has gotten more
automated. My company is a small is a
company and it's all automation. I deal
with I' I've never even met my
supervisor in person. It's all done on
Teams. You know, my boss is in another
state. The CEO is in California. And
that's just the way of the world of 2026
with corporations today. So that's
what's going on, not just with, you
know, with with healthcare. Now, I want
to speak a little bit on this
legislation because I was the
legislative aid in Annapolis for 5
years, 6 years, long time. Anyway, I've
sat through a ton of hearings like this.
I worked for a senator and a delegate in
the judiciary committee and I've been
through hundreds of, you know, testimony
of emotion and people outraged and
accusations being made. And what happens
a lot of times is legislation is passed
based on knee-jerk reactions and things
and folks being upset. That's why you
need to investigate and get the facts
right. Legislation generally the first
time never goes very well. No matter how
hard you work on it, it's just it's just
the process of legislation. Anybody
that's worked on legislation, I've
written a bill that's law. You have to
really take your time, talk to
stakeholders. I'm concerned about this
legislation. You know, we've seen things
like the police reform bills in
Maryland, which was a complete disaster,
by the way, which led to the murder of a
of a deputy sheriff down here on the
shore. We saw a kennel bill passed in
this county that almost put every kennel
in Wakamako out of business. They had to
amend the bill because they put in a,000
ft restriction that not one kennel COULD
COMPLY WITH. HECK, NOBODY COULD DO THAT.
UM, and and we just saw recently the
state of Maryland try to bamboozle the
voters with a with a WITH A SPECIAL
SESSION WHERE THE parliamentarian said,
"We make our own rules." And now that
that legislation has lost two court
cases in a row. So yes, you want to get
it right when you work on legislation
because when it goes to court, it can go
pretty bad. And another one, the CT
Wilson bill, the look back child
predator bill, the bill that was passed
with the former Democrat attorney
general.
>> Sorry, sir. Sir, excuse me.
>> Yeah.
>> Can we um do you have a comment or
question this time?
>> Yeah. Yes, I am. I'm sorry. I
>> So, I am about solutions and I believe
what should be done before any
legislation is passed, there should be
an investigation. maybe by the state,
maybe you bring in an independent
investigator from another county like
Worcester County or Somerset or Sussex
County, Delaware. And there should be a
report, a commission report that should
go to the council and go to the
executives with all these claims and
accusations. And that's what legislation
should go up, not just not just the mob
and people screaming. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Thank you.
>> Sit down.
>> Delegate Sher, do you have a response?
>> First, I'm going to say, well, the
gentleman's walking away. He cares to
hear my response. Um well sir I've been
a legislator for 20 years now and
representing this community and everyone
in this room that knows me.
They know that I'm going to come with
the facts.
>> I have come with the facts from the day
I stepped on the comical county council
in 2006
and I'm still doing that today. And I
don't know what specific legislation are
you referring to the county or you
referring to the state.
>> Which legislation m you you said
legislation. So I'm going to be specific
for you. for House Bill 945.
>> Sir, you had your time to speak. Please
give the gentle lady a opportunity to
>> House Bill 945 that was unanimously
passed and my colleagues are sitting
here, one from the Senate and one from
the House. They voted on it as well. And
the facts are
the facts are that this state had over
9,000 complaints in assisted living
facilities and nursing homes. I think
that's enough factual information to to
decide that we as legislators did our
due diligence.
>> This is for County Executive Gerardano.
Why won't you walk through the building
to get to know the residents? That is
the question.
Um, I actually have walked through. Um,
and I was invited on Friday to actually
talk to the residents. So, we have been
there. Um, apparently, I guess I need to
be there more often and I apologize. You
know, it's, um, you know, you're running
a whole county and not that that's an
excuse. Um, but I will tell you, um, I'm
listening to every single person. I
don't want you to think that I'm sitting
here playing on my phone. I'm writing
your names down. I I didn't have a pad
of paper up here. So, um, I have walked
through the nursing home. Um, I've been
given tours multiple times, but, you
know, at the end of the day, you know,
I'm I'm I'm in a situation right now
where we have an administrator that is
qualified. Whether you like her or not,
she does have the qualifications. Um, I
see that a lot of you are upset with
with the way things are going and maybe,
you know, with this county council
legislation, there could be, you know,
think, but we still have a person that
has a job right now. And so, right now,
sitting here attacking her or attacking
this situation, I'm not sure how helpful
that is. I I I don't know. And I know
that's kind of getting off topic, but at
the end of the day, I have walked
through I have walked through um the uh
the nursing home and um you know, I plan
to continue doing that.
>> Thank you for your response.
>> I I have another that was my question.
Um you said you walked through and you
were invited, but you called and asked
if you could be invited to the resident
council. So, how was that invited?
>> No, no, I didn't call at all. I actually
was called to be invited. I did not
call.
>> Okay.
>> No, that's 100% what happened.
>> When do you walk through the nursing
home to get to know the rest? None.
>> City Council President April Jackson.
>> Um, County Executive.
>> Yeah.
>> Where's the transparency here?
>> That's a major need. I don't understand
how any
piece of government can hire someone
without your legislative branch.
>> This should have came before them just
as well as you you went out and hired.
>> It should have came before your
legislative branch.
>> I wholeheartedly agree, Miss Jackson. I
will tell you the previous um the
previous administrator never went in
front of the council either. I have no
problem with the appointment or the um
appointment confirmation process.
>> Wait a minute. You had one
>> person.
>> How was this job posted?
>> Right.
>> How was it posted?
>> It was posted on a
>> somebody told somebody
>> that there was a job opening.
>> They applied for the job and they got
the job.
>> How? And then you wonder why people
don't trust government.
Well, it was actually um on our county
website. It was on Indeed. Um we had it
out just like we do every matter and I'm
not being negative in any or
disrespectful in any kind of way because
I don't believe in disrespect. Not
unless it's necessary,
>> but transparency.
>> Okay, this is in council member Shane's
district. She should have known that
this person was being hired. The
community should have We shouldn't have
had come here for this. We should have
the community should have known it from
the very beginning. This should have
come from you.
>> It should have come from you and that's
the way I feel and that's why the trust
in government is so vague now because of
the things that are being done in the
government.
>> So just in response to that, so after
Miss Bossy was offered the job and she
accepted, we did a closed dooror meeting
with the county council and they had an
opportunity to meet with her. But it was
after you hired her.
>> Correct.
>> It was after It shouldn't have been It
shouldn't have been. Let me finish.
Sorry. Go ahead.
>> You had your turn. Let me add Sorry.
>> You had every opportunity
to let your counselor know that this was
taking place
>> and you refused to.
>> You refused to because you knew who you
were going to hire. Miss Detective, I
want to ask I've been saying it for two
years. I've gotten up at the podium a
bunch. I've wrote you letters. Start
holding regular meetings, have an
agenda, have a briefing book, and stand
in front of your constituents and hear
them.
>> Thank you,
uh, Mr. Ernie Davis.
>> Good evening,
>> Wendy. Unlike you, regardless of what I
say, they're going to make it political,
so I might as well let that out the bag.
Now,
the nursing home is self-sufficient. The
county owns it, but it's not a
department. We need checks and balances.
What the council is doing, this
emergency legislation is the start of
it. But what needs to happen,
and here's my political part,
>> November the 4th,
>> I will move to make that a department.
And when it comes to the department, you
would see bar care taking on that
building. The upkeep will be care
because not only they will have to come
to the council more than four times a
year because they will be a department
head that have to come and do reports,
the council will be able to bring them
in front of the council on a regular
basis to talk to them.
>> It's a little bit different with the
ComicCo Nursing Home because it has its
own tax ID number. So it is completely
separate from the county. So it's not
just as easy to say that we can just
make it a department.
>> Well, the fact that the county owns it,
I think would probably go a long way in
uh allowing us maybe some of the uh u
ability to absorb it as a department. Uh
you would really need to be asking an
attorney that. But I think what uh what
Mr. Davis is suggesting that that is
certainly an option that we ought to be
considering and I would agree with that.
Good evening. My name is Monica Brooks.
I'm a resident here in Wakcomo County.
I'm also president of our NAACP, one of
the partners um with this event. Um I'm
also a business owner. Um I have
employees that are responsible um for
work that we do. If one of my employees
does something or there are questions
from a client that says, "I don't like
this, this, and that. I have a concern
or what have you, then I bring that
employee with me to speak to that client
and we resolve the matter.
How is it that your administrator is not
here tonight?
>> How did you allow that to happen?
Because I'm going tell you something. If
it were me, he would have been or she
would have been right here to answer the
things. you can't answer THIS STUFF CUZ
YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE HECK IS
GOING ON.
>> SO, it's really kind of in a way there's
a blank there's a gaping hole here that
could have been filled by this person to
answer for themselves, right? So, how
did that happen?
>> Yeah. No, I wholeheartedly agree and I
think that it would have been really
good for her to be here as well. Um, I
will tell you that I think she was
invited along with Miss Singbell from
the state and both declined. Um, and so,
uh, you know, I mean, I was kind of
hoping that she would be here. We'll
have a conversation tomorrow, but I
wholeheartedly agree. I think that, um,
being here and listening, I think, is is
part of it. You know what I mean? And I
think that, um, she probably needed to
hear some of these things. But, um, I
have my director of administration,
assistant director of administration
that's worked really closely with her.
So, hopefully we'll be able to relay a
lot of this to her. But, I do agree that
she should have been here. Look, I'm
going to tell you, it's not easy sitting
up here in this role and I know that
there's a lot of angry folks at me right
now, but I did and I did show up and I
am here listening.
>> What I know personally,
>> okay, what I know personally is that you
take everything personally
>> and anytime anyone doesn't agree with
you and that I was my own personal
experience, which I've already said
publicly before, I'm not going to go
into it now, is you start blocking
people, you start cursing people out,
you start doing all this stuff. Now, it
sounds to me that your administrator is
following in your footsteps in the same
way that what you do. And I will say
that is current information. When we had
our press conference, we had our press
conference, which you showed up at some
point to the press conference and there
was your administrator over there. Um,
yeah, you over there who started
videotaping people after the press
conference was done, putting his camera
in people's faces. And I said to him,
why are you filming people when the
press conference is over? He said
absolutely nothing. And just kept
putting camera in my face and all of
these residents and people who came out
and spent their time. There's a gag
order on the staff and I was told and
you can clarify this that now nobody's
allowed in the nursing home unless they
are family. So what I'm saying is this,
the intimidation is evident. AND NUMBER
TWO, AIN'T NOBODY SCARED OF YOU.
NOBODY'S SCARED OF YOU. NOBODY SCARED OF
THIS ADMINISTRATION. We will not have
any of these people intimidated.
