Artist’s rendering of the new Oxford Veterans’ Home.
By DEBORAH A. MILES
The original plans for the new state Veteran’s Home at Oxford in Chenango County, didn’t take into account plans for safe patient handling.
Now, they do.
The redesign of the replacement facility includes ceiling tracks in every one of the 242 bedrooms that will make the safe-patient-handling units available to all the residents.
PEF members who work at the home, located about 30 miles south of Binghamton, said the redesign of the plans is a labor-management success story with the real winners being the residents and staff.
“Getting ceiling tracks in all 242 rooms was significant,” said David Crugnale, a physician’s assistant and PEF health and safety committee co-chair at the state Department of Health (DOH).
Three or four years ago, when the plans for the replacement facility were on the drawing board, safe patient handling was just starting to hit the spotlight in health and safety circles, according to Crugnale.
“I attended a conference in Lake George that focused on safe patient handling,” Crugnale said. “After seeing how patients were so much more comfortable and how the units save staff from injury, that clinched it for me.”
Through a SHIP (State Health Improvement Partnership) grant, PEF organized an abbreviated version of the conference at Oxford, including speakers and vendors.
That’s when people began to see the light,” Crugnale said. “The administration, CSEA (Civil Service Employees Association) and PEF worked together to achieve the same goal. Then things started coming together as far as getting the ceiling tracks in the new building.
“Now, every room will have the ability to use the lift devices. Everyone worked together and we got the grants to implement the whole thing. It’s still a work in progress, like a lot of things that are worthwhile. They take time,” he said. “The ceiling tracks will make it safer for a lot of people in years to come with this new building.
