A Happy Home
Menorah House is getting higher marks
from the state year by year.
JULIE EDGAR SENIOR WRITER
udging by the decreasing
number and nature of the
citations recently brought
against it by the state,
Menorah House has trans-
formed itself into a-model nurs-
ing home.
Less than two years ago, the
211-bed kosher facility in South-
field was slammed in Consumer
Reports as an example of a par-
ticularly bad nursing facility. A
reporter who had gone under-
cover observed residents with
open sores on their bodies; ex-
posed electric wires in the build-
ing and trash strewn everywhere.
The latest state report, based
on an inspection completed last
month, cites the facility for 12
low-level violations, half of them
for patient care issues and two
for "quality of life" issues. The
remainder dealt with environ-
ment and dietary violations.
Nursing homes are evaluated
on their ability to fulfill 319 fed-
eral regulations and another 200
or so state regulations. Menorah
lill
House was not cited for viola-
tions of the state code.
"It's much better than the last
one and the one before that and
the one before that," said Meno-
rah House Administrator Den-
nis Hayes, who came on board in
late 1994.
He attributed the improve-
ments to staff development, a
good rapport between adminis-
tration and staff, more commu-
nity outreach programs, good
nursing, social work and dietary
programs, and a lot of volunteer
input.
Nursing director Martha Det-
tloff, who joined Menorah House
a year ago, recently received the
Nightingale, Award from Oak-
land University in the category
of long-term care. She is among
a handful of metro area health-
care professionals who were hon-
ored in various categories.
"Things take time," said Mr.
Hayes. "We've tried to be stead-
fast, we've tried not to be threat-
ened by bad results we've had in
the past. We're just happy every-
thing's coming together nicely."
Said Margot Parr, "I think the
whole community must be very
happy about this. Menorah
House and the staff there real-
ly deserve the credit." Ms. Parr
is executive director of Jewish
Home for Aged (JHA), which pro-
vides cultural and religious pro-
gramming for Menorah House
and the area's only other kosher
nursing facility, the Marvin and
Betty Dante Family Health Care
Center in West Bloomfield. Al-
most 70 percent of Menorah
House residents are Jewish.
Ms. Parr, who oversaw the re-
location of Prentis Manor resi-
dents after the closure of that
JHA nursing home in December,
believes that Menorah House's
outreach efforts have contributed
to its well-being. She pointed to
intergenerational programs in
which students "adopt" residents
with whom they regularly visit
and to the Passover seder, for ex-
ample, that brought in people
from the outside. The Menorah
House Advisory Committee,
whose members include a repre-
sentative of Jewish Family Ser-
vice and various rabbis, develops
activities for residents.
"The facility was concentrat-
ing so heavily on the physical en-
vironment and quality of care,
In the quality of care area,
that's where all their attention
was going. They now have the Menorah House was cited for vi-
ability and time to focus on pro- olations that included improper
gramming and Community ac- care of three residents' pressure
sores, failure to refer a suicidal
tivities," Ms. Parr said.
Last week, Mr. Hayes and his patient to the staff social work-
team were preparing a plan of er and to follow a therapeutic
correction for the state that may diet for a patient with nutri-
have included a challenge or two tional problems.
to some of the find-
ings.
"We think the
state was fair in its
appraisal, although
we don't agree 100
percent with the
state," Mr. Hayes
said, pointing to one
citation that the
home isn't provid-
ing a safe place for
residents' valuables.
Menorah House has
a patient trust ac-
count for in-house
bank accounts, he
said.
"We're not con-
vinced the persons
who may have al-
leged this were en-
tirely able to
communicate the
realities of the situ-
ation. Maybe they
misplaced some-
thing and thought it
was stolen."
Martha Dettloff and Dennis Hayes of Menorah House.
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