Monday 06/14/2021
Went for the standard walk. Was a bit more tired than usual, finishing it. I’m continuing to be mildly concerned about my health. My temp has been going up toward 99 in the evenings. Today it was 97.7 at dawn, which is excellent, normal. But now at 7pm it’s 99.9, which is almost high enough to call myself ill.
The monthly Resident Association meeting was at 10:30. Today in the admin section, Rhonda presented on the planned charge structure for nursing activities.
She presented a chart that clarified a lot of things for me. Down the left, each row of about 25, listed a nursing activity, e.g. eyedrops, blood pressure. Three columns: the left column had check marks in the first 3 or 4 rows; these are the few nursing services that are included for independent living. Middle column, a longer line of check marks, the services that are no-charge to Assisted Living. Last column, check marks all the way down, services that are no-charge in Skilled Nursing.
She explained that as a CCRA, our business model is based on actuarial statistics: people will live a certain length of time at each level of care. During the pandemic, owing to various problems including a shortage of AL units, some people have lingered longer in IL and the nurses have spent time supporting them. However, if they continue providing free AL services to IL residents, it breaks the business model. But now that the 3rd floor renovation is wrapping up, with its addition of 20-ish new AL rooms, they need to get all that straightened out. People who need more assistance (putting on compression stockings, putting in daily eyedrops, help bathing…) can enter AL where they get all they need (and their rent does not change).
There was an hour of discussion following this but my take is, everything is working pretty much as the contract I signed promised. You get the care you need, your rent doesn’t change, but the trade-off is you have to move to an appropriate unit.
There have been two couples on my very floor who fought this for a while. In both cases the husband is moderately healthy and mobile, while the wife is declining badly. This puts a steadily increasing burden on the husband; but in both cases either the wife or both resisted letting the wife move to AL. One couple finally agreed. The other is still hanging tough.
The rest of the day I slogged around my room doing more or less interesting stuff but being physically inert. By 5pm I was sick of myself and went for a mile walk. On return I grabbed a sandwich from the to-go refrigerator and had it with some cherries and a beer.
Codgerville 