Northampton County Council’s Feb. 7 agenda was empty. Council members were apparently looking forward to a 15-minute meeting. A negative report card from the state Department of Health concerning Gracedale could be discussed later. Council suddenly reversed course after criticism on social media. That health inspection was discussed in detail.

Executive Lamont McClure started by saying he regrets not having fired Premier, the nursing home’s administrator, last year. Premier was still Gracedale’s manager at the time of a health inspection that resulted in 11 deficiencies.

Saying he was “very disappointed,” McClure pointed to several other nursing homes run by Premier with “below average” ratings. He noted that five of the 11 deficiencies are directly related to the system used by Premier to direct nursing home care. To make matters worse, he said that Premier’s expert at the home had basically checked out in April.

“Not only were we poorly managed, we weren’t managed at all,” he said.

Premiere, the county’s former nursing home administrator, was not at this meeting.

Human Services Director Sue Wandalowski stressed that the county takes each of the 11 deficiencies seriously, and corrective actions are in place.

Jennifer D. Stewart-King, the county’s own nursing home administrator, echoed Wandalowski. She said her team “by no means takes this lightly.” She noted the inspection process became more rigorous as a result of complaints from state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale. State inspectors were at Gracedale for four days, talking to everyone. They also watched residents at mealtime, and check the medications administered to 70 of them.

She went over each of 11 deficiencies and how they are being addressed.

Stewart-King said that immediate education and audits at every shift are being done.

“We do what needs to be done to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” she said.

Both Wandalowski and Stewart-King stresses a need for electronic health records. Stewart-King said the paperwork put in place by Premiere is “overwhelming”

Wandalowski agrees there “needs to be more in-person training.” She pointed to health education software being implemented, but still six months away.

“Do whatever you have to do; lean on whoever you need to lean on. Push whoever you need to push, but let’s get this system going,” urged Council President Ron Heckman.

“We were lied to,” said Councilman Bob Werner, referring to the private administrator. “We finally got into the black and now we find out we have some problems again.”

He asked specifically about the wound care team, only to learn that one resident has six pressure wounds.

“Please, let’s fix something here,” he said with some exasperation.

Despite the concerns expressed by everyone else, two people attempted to minimize the negative survey. One of them - Lori Vargo Heffner - chairs the Human Services Committee. The other - Brian Dunlap - is Gracedale’s administrator in training.

“Comparatively, it was good,” Heffner said. She wants to chair a meeting in which administrators will “tell us what you did well, too. Let’s not just focus on the deficiencies.”

Brian Dunlap, an accountant, presented a spreadsheet of 15 nursing homes and contends that Gracedale would only have one deficiency if it were smaller. This argument is based on the presumption that deficiencies are somehow related to number of residents.