News Release #16-015

October 7, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Krista A. Kittle
(315) 785-4504

SAMARITAN RESTRUCTURES LONG-TERM CARE SERVICES

Watertown, NY ----- In an effort to right-size and align Samaritans long-term care
division, Samaritan Keep Home (SKH) and Samaritan Summit Village (SSV) will
restructure some of their staffing, including adding new staff and laying off others.
The majority of positions affected fall within the support services and quality
assurance/utilization review areas of the two facilities, with very few changes
among direct-care staff.
The continuum of long-term care services we provide is vital to this community,
and with the aging Baby Boomer population, the need for these services will only
continue to grow, explains Barbara Morrow, Vice President of Long-Term Care.
Long-term care services across the state face growing challenges in
reimbursement and regulatory requirements, and most, including SSV and SKH,
struggle to get out of the red. We just cannot sustain operations with the structure
we have in place now, so these staffing changes are necessary to stabilize finances
and insure our ability to provide these necessary services long into the future.
Our facilities have seen significant losses month after month despite efforts to
increase occupancy, manage payer mix and decrease expenditures. With our
current financial trend we anticipate that both SSV and SKH will have over a million
dollar loss by year-end. The financial stability plan includes opportunities to increase
revenue while decreasing expenses and bad debt funds. Some of the changes
include:

Oversight of facility/plant operations and food service, resulting in three

management layoffs
Two registered nurses on care units will be offered other positions within the
Samaritan system
Combining two Medical Director roles into one to oversee both facilities
Utilizing a Nurse Practitioner model of care at SKH instead of a physician
Addition of a Financial Analyst in the Admission department
Addition of two Quality Utilization Review RN positions to teach
documentation, perform MDS work and audit documentation which is key to

our financial future. LPN in this department will be offered additional

positions in the Samaritan system.
Addition of three Environmental Services Staff at Samaritan Keep Home
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News Release 16-015

October 7, 2016
Page Two

The Admissions Financial Analyst role is critical in reducing bad debt expenses,
which currently exceed $400,000 at each facility. This individual assists families to
insure that they have the right insurance coverage or, in the case of self-pay, that
they have the financial resources available to place their loved one in a nursing
home or assisted living facility.
As not-for-profit organizations, Samaritan Summit Village and Samaritan Keep
Home operating margins drive our ability to add services and staff or to make
capital investments in our facilities, concludes Mrs. Morrow. Our current state is
unsustainable. The changes outlined in our financial stability plan will result in net
savings each month to help us turn ourselves around.
Samaritans long-term care financial stability plan was implemented on October 6 th.
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