Carbon County, Pennsylvania, has begun the process of selling Weatherwood, the county-owned nursing home in Weatherly, Pennsylvania.

I’m blogging to address comments made in the press by Carbon County Commissioner, William O’Gurek. According to Mr. O’Gurek, a state inspection last summer: “‘The deficiencies had an adverse effect from the perspective of image, finance and really the overall question of whether we should be in the nursing home care business.”

Let’s be clear about what a “deficiency” means in the world of nursing homes. It means that state inspectors came in, inspected the nursing home, reviewed patient charts, and concluded that the nursing home was not following the law in terms of providing the safest patient care. In short, the care rendered was “deficient.” In short, it means that the facility was unreasonably unsafe.

For a county official to say that these deficiencies simply created an image problem, or a finance problem, is a gross understatement that fails to comprehend the fact that patients health and well-being was clearly being jeopardized when the inspectors cited the facility.

Don’t just take my word for it, all of the “surveys” are a matter of public record and you can click here to see the Weatherwood surveys.