Advisory Council Meeting October 19, 2023  HOLLIDAYSBURG VETERANS' HOME (HVH). ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES  THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2023  10:00 AM  ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:  Ildephonse "Duffy" Hines (Council President), Marine Corps League Department of PA R. Raymond Lenz (Council Secretary), American Legion Department of PA  Henry Gaunt, AMVETS  Joseph Rodkey, Blinded Veterans Association John "Goose" Marin, Catholic War Vets Brian Querry, Centre County, Director of VA Thomas Williams, VFW Department of PA David Wagner, DAV Michael "Mick" Hoover, MOPH  Richard "Rudy" Fanti, Resident Representative  VIP'S PRESENT:  State Representative Louis Schmitt. Jr.  DMVA PRESENT:  Marc Ferraro, Executive Deputy Secretary Travis Davis, Executive Director of Long-Term Care Barb Raymond, Director, Bureau of Veterans' Homes Jennifer Hagaman, Veterans' Service Specialist, Central PAI Region  HVH PRESENT:  Chrissy Dambeck, Commandant Crystal Hansel, Interim Deputy Commandant John Reinhardt, Doctor Matt Latini, CRNP Kelly Smith, Director of Nursing Joe Patterson, Admissions and Marketing Matt Smearman, Maintenance Butch Regala, Housekeeping    Advisory Council Meeting October 19, 2023  Julie Sanders, Purchasing Dawn Hopkins, Storeroom Sheena Mickel, Social Services  Tia Williams, Assistant to the Commandant and Recorder  OTHERS PRESENT:  Anna Marie Rodkey, Spouse of Joseph Rodkey Constance Stransky, Guest of R. Raymond Lenz James Lamison, Guest of Henry Gaunt Joe Tremus, Guest of Dave Wagner Jay Buchanan, Guest of Duffy Hines  VACANT POSITIONS: Jewish War Veterans  Military Officers Association of America ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Tim Susengill, Vietnam Veterans Association  Call to Order/Roll Call  Duffy Hines called the meeting to order at 10:03 AM and asked everyone in attendance to introduce  themselves and to provide their title and/or Service Organization.  Moment of Silence and Pledge of Allegiance  Duffy asked everyone to stand and to take a moment of silence and then asked Henry Gaunt to lead the Pledge  of Allegiance.  Review of Minutes from Previous Meeting  Duffy asked every, member if they had any question, comment, or concerns regarding the minutes from the previous meeting held on Thursday, July 20, 2023. Duffy suggested being clearer in the minutes, especially with acronyms and terminology since the minutes are now posted for the public. Something we as a group might understand might become confusing for the public if they aren'tf familiar with particular acronyms or terminology. With no other questions, comments or concerns, Duffy said the minutes for. July are accepted as posted. R. Raymond Lenz, Council Secretary, then signed the minutes to make them official.    Advisory Council Meeting October 19, 2023  Employee Recognition Secretary.  Sheena Mickel received Leadership of Excellence award, presented by Marc Ferraro, Executive Deputy Butch Regala received recognition for himself and on behalf of select housekeeping staff who traveled to Dawn Hopkins received recognition for her role ini the storeroom for all six state veterans' homes.  Southwestern Veterans Center to assist with staffing.  Swearing In New Members  N/A  Dr.J John Reinhardt, HVH Medical Director  Dr. Reinhardt introduced Matt Latini, CRNP, who rounds at HVH. Dr. Reinhardt spoke on his own history with nursing homes over the years and how things such as life expectancy has changed. He explained how Matt Latini was a nurse at Mount Nittany hospital in State College and how he had to "re-learn" a lot oft things transitioning from a hospital to being al long-term care provider. He was a student for nearly two years with the Reinhardt practice before he officially. joined their team. Matt has been rounding daily at HVH now. Matt stated  "it's been a pleasure to be here. I've grown to know the staff and residents quite well".  Questions, Comments, Concerns  N/A  Marc Ferraro, Executive Deputys Secretary  Marc stated things have been busy in the last quarter and they continue to get busier. TAG and DAG have been out promoting what the Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs (DMVA) has been doing and there has been success int their efforts. He explained they are constantly on the road talking about mental health, Coming up in November is the quarterly Governor's Advisory Council. This will be Governor Shapiro's first one Indiantown Gap Cemetery Memorial which ist the largest state memorial at any federal cemetery finished a 3.5- million-dollar renovation project opening at the end of October. TAG/DAG attending Senator's Breakfast this morning and will be out on that trail. Wreaths Across America event coming up in December. The National Guard is at its lowest deployment overseas with about 150 airmen soldiers deployed overseas. Continuing to work on legislative issues and there are: some bills being circulated that supports Veterans.  homelessness, education, etc. since in office.  Some smaller deployments after the holidays will be happening.  Marc thanked everyone for all the do to support HVH and for their service.  Questions, Comments, Concerns  Tom Williams asked what the actual date for Wreaths Across America event is?-Saturday, December 16, 2023,  at noon.  Travis Davis, Executive Director  Travis announced that the minutes for Advisory Council meetings are now posted on the DMVA website; they  are available for all six homes and open to the public.    Advisory Council Meeting October 19, 2023  Travis talked about how staffing minimums are getting al bit confusing between what we're doing and what is being proposed byt the federal government. Pennsylvania has new regulations for increasing staff minimums and the Bureau of Veterans' Homes has met that and are ahead of requirements. There are concerns from the state as year one was funded, the long-term care community is concerned about year two and lack off funding. In September 2023, the feds came out with the first proposal of staffing minimums, increasing numbers of RN's and CNA's, but have left LPN's out oft the proposal. They are asking for feedback. There would be no funding behind this federal proposal. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid predict it would be a cost of $1 billion dollars ift the proposal goes through with no funding. Next quarter, Travis will give an update on the federal proposal. Staffing across the six state veterans' homes is good, we have waiting lists for residents. Recruitment and retention is the biggest issue across the homes. Still doing walk-in Wednesdays and career fairs at various homes. Admissions at the highest level in 3 years. We just broke 70% occupancy across all six homes and are aiming for 75% by the end of the year. Waitlist across the state is 273, and 200 of those are veterans, the rest  are non-vet spouses.  Department of Health annual surveys have been completed in all homes. Southeastern Veterans Center, 3-star ratings - Pennsylvania Soldiers and Sailors.  5-Star ratings - Delaware Valley, Gino Merli and Southwestern Veterans Center, 4-Star ratings-HVH,  Construction is moving along nicely.  Currently interviewing for Delaware Valley Veterans Center Commandant. Recruiting a part-time physician in  Philadelphia.  Questions, Comments, Concerns  Brian Querry asked if all: skilled nursing homes, even in the private sector, subject to this federal staffing proposal? - Yes. State Veterans' Homes are better off than the private sector, but we are competing for the same workforce. We remain competitive with salaries, but bonuses and incentives are what we can'tcompete  with.  Barb Raymond, Director  COVID numbers at HVH are okay, throughout the commonwealth, COVID is on the rise and hospitals are getting full. Significant outbreaks at some homes. Everyone is currently stable. There have been four deaths since the beginning of the year. with COVID listed as a contributing factor, but not the primary cause. Out oft the six homes, 58 residents are positive with primarily cold-like symptoms or completely asymptomatic. The current requirements/recommendations from the Department of Health is to test everyone who has been exposed, which is why we are seeing these numbers. No influenza positive residents at this time across all homes. Offering both Flu and COVID shots to staff members. Focusing on flu shot right now. Both can be given at the same time. The CDC is recommending a 3-4 month waiting period fori the COVID shot after being COVID positive. The current shot ist targeting the XBB strain with a 40-50% efficacy rate. RSV vaccine available in  homes but it is upi to the medical provider. Iti is mostly for high-risk individuals.  Doing well with admissions across the board. staffing, services provided and surveys.  5 out oft the 6: state veterans' homes, including HVH, were listed as America's best in Newsweek. These look at  Gearing upi for Veterans Day as well as holiday visits by TAG. medications as opposed to Medicare Part D.  Revenue looking at PACT act monies for veterans and getting additional funding, utilizing VA to pay for specific Compliance-wise, some things are being looked at such as contracts and a potential data breach with one of our vendors. Still investigating to see exactly what was breached and how many; Compliance is monitoring this piece. One of our vendors had al billing issue at another nursing home (not one of our State Veterans Homes), sO we are reviewing our information to ensure we didn't have any issues with this vendor. We found that  Justifacts can do background checks from exclusionary process.    Advisory Council Meeting October 19, 2023  Questions, Comments, Concerns  N/A  Chrissy Dambeck, Commandant  The last quarter has been very busy. There have been a few Department of Health (DOH) Surveys - on August gth was a complaint survey. Any time a resident, family or anonymous complaint is filed, DOH must come in to investigate. This complaint was unfounded. DOH was again in on August 24th for our annual inspection survey. We received 12 deficiencies; none were due to actual harm. We received notification yesterday from DOH that We had our first annual HVH Softball Marathon. We planned to compete with VZMC, but they didn't! have enough for a team. HVH played each other and a good time was had by all. Employee Association started here atl HVH. This is where employees elect officials and are able to hold fundraisers for various causes. There have POW-MIA ceremonies were held in September, one in Eisenhower Hall and one in Arnold Hall. The Blair County Honor Guard and the Legion Riders attended and participated. Oktoberfest was also held in September and for the first time ever, residents were able to enjoy alcoholic beverages at the function. Some upcoming events are the annual Thanksgiving and Christmas family meals which will be: scaled down, limiting number of guests due Our first DMVA employee recognition ceremony was held here in September here for 20 HVH employees who Hollidaysburg Veterans Home was nominated as #14 nursing home ini the state by Newsweek. Chrissy thanked Crystal Hansel for her time helping as Interim Deputy Commandant here at HVH and announced that Crystal will move to Interim Director of Nursing (DON) here and Kelly Smith is the new Deputy Commandant, effective October 28th. Crystal will fill in as DON until a permanent replacement is selected. We've had several employees retire such as Assistant Director of Nursing (ADON) Sherry Falbow. ADON. Jen Claar will be retiring in November. Desiree Kearney was hired as new ADON and will: start November 13th.  they will do a desk audit for our plan of correction.  been several successful fundraisers already.  to construction and parking issues.  were nominated. These will be held quarterly across the state.  We've recently filled the Accountant 3 position, promoting Jackie Treon.  Questions, Comments, Concerns  N/A  Matt Smearman, Maintenance day-to-day aspects of the work. will also support the new building.  Matt announced that he works for Greg Lehman who oversees projects and Luke Hughes who oversees the Two capital projects on campus right now; MacArthur Hall project - started outside parts, as well as elevator work and dining room work/updates. Will run gas line and will eventually change over from steam. The gas line New building project- = Al lot of excavation is going on right now. All underground infrastructure is complete minus the gas line, started pouring footers, concrete walls, elevator shaft is blocked out and plan to start steel  ine early November. Project is running on schedule with no delays thus far.  Questions, Comments, Concerns nothing to date, though.  Dave Wagner asked if there have been any changes or are we holding to the budget? Matt stated this is a DGS project, verbiage was put out to eliminate change orders, but unforeseen things could always happen =    Advisory Council Meeting October 19, 2023  Joe Patterson, Admissions and Marketing  Admissions - Joe asked everyone to please reference the handout provided in the packet. Included previous quarter but looking at. July thru September. Joe explained that if someone expires at the hospital, it shows up as a discharge and a death, so it seems as though it is double in those instances, but iti really isn't. Joe provided number of residents by county for entire campus on the handout as requested by the council. Marketing Attended Senior Expo and had a table, received al lot of Q&A here. Visited the DESA group in Martinsburg and there were a lot of questions about the new building and if we serve certain counties only. All were reassured that we: serve all counties, notj just select ones.. Joe was invited to a veteran community initiative in Johnstown and will: set up a table. Veteran Community Initiative asked to have event here buti it was explained that we would not have the proper parking space due to construction. Goose Marin graciously worked with the Catholic War Vets in Altoona tol host event there. Joe was invited to Veterans Appreciation Joe received lost medals for an HVH.. Joe is able to work with Altoona Area School District to award honorary diplomas to any' Veteran that would have graduated from Altoona but deployed and wasn'table to. Brian Querry asked about changing the verbiage in report from 'non-veterans" to "National Guard", etc. - Joe/leadership will look into this. Brian also asked about holiday donations and if there was anything specific HVH is looking for?- -i it was noted that Chrissy will ensure Emily McDowell sent al letter out. Brian Querry asked if someone is discharged from HVH, is there normally a quick return to the facility if they wish? Joe explained that if they! leave against medical advice (AMA), there sometimes can be a wait but if they  Breakfast for networking and a dessert social held by the Senator's office.  Questions, Comments, Concerns  discharge not AMA, can look at original application with clinical review.  Duffy Hines - Report of Status  One member should have been reappointed. We are working to get through this. Duffy suggests looking at this Jay Buchanan is the candidate submitted to replace Robert Sembower and is awaiting approval.  process and standardize it and it might make a difference.  Old Business N/A  New Business  Duffy would like to focus on a standardization of renewal process. Will give report at the next meeting.  Annountements/Sood of the Council  Ray Lenz noted that a resident from Luzerne County is missing on Joe's report - Joe will look into this issue.    Advisory Council Meeting October 19, 2023  Adjournment 2024, at 1000hrs.  Duffy reminded everyone that the next Advisory Council meeting is set to be held on Thursday, January 18,  Am motion was made by Ray Lenz to adjourn and seconded by Mick Hoover.  Meeting was adjourned at 1145hrs.  AR by R.F Raymond Lenz, Secretary