SEIU 1199 members at Crestwood stand up and demand the Nursing Home Quality and Accountability Task Force consider their expertise when addressing the nursing home crisis.
On Tuesday, April 18 at 2:30 pm, SEIU 1199 nursing home workers at Crestwood Care Center (225 W. Main St., Shelby OH), will be holding a small event to demonstrate just how important the worker’s voice is to fix the nursing home crisis in Ohio and to make sure workers’ voices aren’t the missing piece of the conversations.
Workers are standing up to Governor Mike DeWine’s Nursing Home Quality and Accountability Task Force to be sure workers aren’t the missing piece. This task force will hear from family members of residents, nursing home administrators and state regulators, but fails to include the workers, who are actually providing the care. To exclude workers from this conversation is a missed opportunity to better understand why Ohio’s nursing homes are not working the way they should and a clear display of failed leadership.
Medicare rates Ohio’s nursing home industry as 39th in the US in terms of quality and some of the worst in the country. Crestwood is no exception with a one out of five-star overall rating from Medicare, based on their health inspections, staffing levels, and quality measures. Like many other nursing homes in Ohio, Crestwood has a notably below the average staffing rating at one-star rating. Facilities like this are forcing nursing home workers to leave the industry in droves due to lack of respect and low wages.
“We are taking care of living people; you cannot run it like a factory. Patients need our time and attention, and corporate is trying to take love and compassion out of our job by focusing on their bottom line,” said Terri Risner, STNA at Crestwood.
“Seniors and people with disabilities are suffering due to the catastrophic staffing crisis in all of Ohio’s nursing homes. We implore Nursing Home owners and Governor DeWine to prioritize their care over profits. The only way to fix the broken nursing home systems in our state is to increase care hours, hire more staff, pay a living wage and respect staff enough to work with them to create sustainable solutions,” said Becky Williams, President of SEIU District 1199.
Join us Tuesday, April 18 at Crestwood Care Center to demand Governor DeWine talk to the workers about what is really going wrong in the nursing home industry. Without the workers’ voice, it will be impossible to fix any of Ohio’s broken systems – and our loved one’s care will continue to suffer.
Nicole Sword and Rackell Ellis
SEIU 1199
