Elated administrators and board members say the challenge continues to maintain high standards. G RUTH UTTPAANN STAFF WRITER ood news...finally. manage and maintain the sys- Borman Hall, the tems we have established." 212-bed Jewish nursing One problem area is interde- home in Detroit, passed partmental communications. its latest state inspection after For example, nurses must bet- failing three times in 12 ter communicate with dietit- months. cians and cooks who prepare In July, the Michigan De- meals for residents with special partment of Public Health cit- needs, administrators say. The ed the Home for four top-level Home's new bowel and bladder code violations, as well as over program also was cited as defi- 100 less serious deficiencies. cient. With its license and Medi- "We knew we didn't have it up care/Medicaid funding on the to speed, but it's a start. The sur- line, Borman Hall went into cri- veyors said the program is just sis mode, trying to clean up its not complete," Mr. Steele said. act before the arrival of anoth- Denise Bortolani-Rabidoux, er inspection team. executive director of the Jewish But Friday, when the MDPH Home for Aged, credits mem- surveyors finished their unan- bers of staff and management nounced four-day re-in- spection, the outcome was uplifting. Dozens of staff members, who gathered to hear the state officials annour .,.. the survey's results, shed tears of relief. The Home was cited for no top-level violations and only 10 minor in- fractions. Administra- tors hope the state will lift the ban on admis- sions, thus enabling the daily resident census, which stands at 166, to climb. "(Borman Hall) showed dramatic im- provement to the extent that we are recom- mending they continue in the Medicare pro- gram," said Dr.-Richard Yerian, chief medical consultant for the Bu- reau of Health Systems in Lansing. "Now they must show that their corrections last." Ad- ministrators at the Resident Harry Weinsaft hopes "ini be forever." Home express similar enthusi- with the latest success. asm, but also stress the need for "They worked really hard," ongoing improvements. she said. Since August, the "I think that we now have an Home provided many in-service outstanding team and tremen- and training programs. Elmer dous teamwork with a renewed Benson, a monitor who acted as spirit and commitment among liaison between Borman and the staff to want to do a good the MDPH, offered advice on job," said John Steele, director how to comply with state codes. of the Home. "The challenge About five nurses and eight now is to address a few more aides were replaced. problem areas, implement mea- Nearly a year after $2.95 mil- sures to correct them, then lion of United Jewish Founda- tion monies paid for the Home's fast-track clean-up, Jewish Fed- eration officials are commend- ing Borman Hall for its turnaround. Since August, the Home expended about $75,000 for the clean-up. Ms. Rabidoux said she hopes Federation will foot the bill. Robert Aronson, Federation executive vice-preside; it, said, "Over the past few months, un- der Denise Rabidoux's direction, the Home, its management and staffhave done an outstanding job of addressing problems at Borman Hall. What we must now address is ongoing con- cerns about our community's ability to underwrite the enor- mous costs of running Borman Hall while pro- viding the highest qual- ity of care for our elderly." The JHA board, chaired by Robert Naf- taly, met Tuesday for a debriefing. The same evening, members of the Elder Care Op- tions Committee, chaired by Mark Schlussel, discussed the community's role in caring for the frail Jewish aged. Will the Jewish community stay in the nursing home business? "I believe that the de- cisions the community needs to make were not and should not be driven by the state's actions, but should be driven by what is best for the Jewish community and the aged within it," Mr. Schlussel said. Federation officials have said they neither plan on closing Borman Hall nor abandoning institutional- ized elder care. Relatives of Bor- man residents say the Jewish community must do its part. "Staff can only do so much," said Midge Appel, whose moth- er lives at Borman Hall. "The staff brought everything up to code, but I think it has to be a community effort. We don't want it to ever happen again."0 Guide Helps Collect Holocaust Memories ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSISTANT EDITOR M artin and Laura Kohn don't believe in keep- ing a good thing to themselves. Last year, the two helped co- ordinate a collection of Holo- caust memories and observations by members of Temple Emanu-EL ...And So We Must Remember was published in September and has since sold more than 600 copies. It con- tained passages by survivors and their relatives, accounts of visits to the death camps and writings by men and women who watched their families murdered. It workshop on the subject at the 62nd General Assembly of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. "It's important that this pro- ject not be in a vacuum," Mrs. Kohn said. "A lot of Jews feel connected to the Holocaust and they don't know how to respond. "This kind of information about the Holocaust — this gold mine -- will be available for only a few more years. "We didn't see the book as an end in itself," she added. "We felt we had a mission to share." The Kohns estimate they spent about two years working hoto by Glenn Triest Home for Aged Passes State Health Inspection Laura and Marty Kohn remember. was a way to remember and to end uneasy silences — parents who didn't know how to speak of their death-camp experiences, children who did not know how to ask. "This project," said Howard Kloc, whose mother and father both wrote pieces for .. .And So We Must Remember, "opened doors that had remained closed." Now the Kohns, of Hunting- ton Woods, have written a guide they hope will help other con- gregations throughout the coun- try produce similar collections. "How Your Synagogue Can Create Its Own Holocaust Re- membrance Book" will make its formal debut later this month in San Francisco when Mrs. Kohn and Temple Emanu-El Rabbi Lane Steinger present a on ...And So We Must Remem- ber, from its earliest stages of development to its publication last fall. Everything they learned along the way is in their new booklet. Sections offer guidance on how to find and form a commit- tee, how to solicit material, the cost of everything from postage to printing, and publicity. One of the most important keys to success when working on a book like .. .And So We Must Remember is attracting differ- ent people to do the myriad jobs required on such an extensive project. There must be someone willing to do the typing, anoth- er who can edit, a third knowl- edgeable about art work and design, Mrs. Kohn said.