Reading the July 12 story “Medicaid effort hailed,” I’m sorry Sandra Morgan had a bad experience at a local nursing home. What really made me angry was that The Columbian chose to print her perceptions of mistreatment mostly on the front page.
The facility she was in was an older, smaller one with “communal” bathrooms, not attached to the resident’s room. I’m sure a bedside commode was probably a better option for someone post-surgery, rather than traveling through the hall to the bathroom. To say her orange juice was “laced” with a thickening agent sounds like poisoning. Residents sometimes have physician’s orders for thickened fluids to prevent choking. As far as “hosing her down” in the wheelchair, shower rooms generally have hand-held nozzles and maybe that seemed like a “car wash” to her.
Yes, some residents are in “different stages of life and death” but many are thriving, involved in facility life and grateful to have the care they need. This story was meant to focus on the in-home Medicaid programs and how much they save taxpayers. If the same people fortunate enough to still be in their own homes had to have 24/7 licensed nurse, housekeeping and laundry services as residents do, it would be a different story.
Cheryl Moulton
Washougal
