LAWRENCE COUNTY Officials mull future of nursing home

A new service will allow the county 911 to find medical helicopters more easily.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County commissioners are considering handing operation of the county-owned nursing home back to a professional management company.
The county ended its contract with Complete Care Services of Horsham, Pa., in May 2001 and made all managers county employees. CCS had run the home since December 1995.
Commissioners, however, said the number of residents has recently dropped and they think a management company could help boost those numbers.
Commissioner Brian Burick said there have only been about 84 residents in Hill View Manor in the last few weeks.
"That's too many empty beds," he said.
Commissioners said it's unclear why the population has dropped.
In the past, the nursing home has had at least 90 to 100 patients, Burick said.
Commissioners Roger DeCarbo and Ed Fosnaught agreed to talk to CCS about taking over the home.
Burick said the previous contract with the CCS required the county to pay all salaries of the management staff, a flat monthly fee and give 1.5 percent of the gross revenue to the company. It amounted to about $10,000 per month, he noted.
Using helicopter
County officials are planning to work with STAT MedEvac, a nonprofit medical helicopter service in Pittsburgh, to get faster helicopter service in medical emergencies in Lawrence County.
Burick said STAT MedEvac has a new global positioning system that allows it to track the 10 nearest available medical helicopters and direct the nearest one to the emergency.
The county 911 service must manually telephone STAT MedEvac and its competitors to determine who is closest, he said.
Burick said the service will not cost the county anything. They estimate the new service will trim five to seven minutes off response time.