LETTER: Nursing home should be taken off county levy

To the Editor:

Once again I must respond to a number of false and deceptive accusations made by a county union employee concerning the county-owned New Richmond nursing home.

Ms. Dupre stated last week the New Richmond home has historically housed a higher percentage of needy residents than do other non-profit or private homes. This is an outright false statement.

All nursing homes in the State of Wisconsin must accept Medicaid patients in order to maintain their license. When checking the patient mix of nursing home in St. Croix County you’ll find them all to be very close to the same. Every home will take any patient which that facility has the ability to care for regardless of income source.

I found this comment in Ms. Dupre’s letter intriguing, “Many times our residents were turned away from the other facilities — that is why they are here in the first place.” Hmmm, if the New Richmond home is the five-star facility it claims to be, then why would residents only come there after having been turned away elsewhere? Could it be that many shopping residents saw through the hype when making visits to select a home?

Maybe someone could explain why the New Richmond home had 11 referrals from Dec. 14 through Dec. 23, but only accepted two of those referrals. The report states that seven residents were declined and two went to different homes. Why would a five-star home claiming to be a place of last resort turn away people while having 12 open beds?

Also, perhaps someone could explain how this five-star facility became infected with the Norovirus and was unable to accept any admissions from Dec. 23 through Jan. 7? Maybe the home isn’t as five-star as it claims to be.

Fact is the vast majority of residents in the New Richmond home come from within a 12-mile circle of New Richmond. So while the rest of the communities within our county give additional support to their local non-profit nursing homes through charity, New Richmond expects us to support their home with county tax-levy dollars on top of the extra $433,000 IGT funding they also receive.

It’s time for the New Richmond nursing home to get off the tax-levy so those dollars can be used for a proper purpose and not wasted on an over-funded, so-called five-star home.

Steve Hermsen

St. Croix

County supervisor

District 13

Tags: letters to the editor, opinion