Nathaniel Witherell Family Council Responds: Staff Are Not to Blame

Submitted by Amy Badini and Sheilah Smith, Co-Chairs, The Nathaniel Witherell Family Council

For over a century, The Nathaniel Witherell has provided top-notch care to aging and infirm residents of our community. Its historically five-star rating from the US Center for Medicare Services (CMS) was earned by hard-working and compassionate care staff, with support of the Town of Greenwich

Unfortunately, Witherell’s five-star CMS rating plummeted down to three stars last year and is now a shocking and humiliating one star. How did this happen?

Two years ago, in an effort to fulfill the cost-cutting mandate set forth by a new First Selectman, the Witherell Board of Directors put in place a management team to make this a priority. Frontline nursing positions were eliminated, and other care staff who were retiring were not replaced. A lower cost food vendor was selected and demonstrated significant cost savings by discontinuing all meal choice and snacks.

Over the past two years, the number of care staff on any given shift has been reduced by nearly half, resulting in the numerous deficiencies recently cited by the CT Dept. of Public Health, because short staffing means fewer hands to monitor and help residents. All this, at the height of the pandemic when state oversight was put on hold.

Rather than blaming the care staff for the degradation of service, we encourage the First Selectman, and Witherell’s Executive Director, Board Chair and Directors to look within so that a genuine effort can be made to restore Witherell to the quality facility that Greenwich expects.

Witherell must be viewed as a necessary service rather than a facility expected to return a profit to the Town of Greenwich, on the backs of the hard-working, Covid-fatigued staff and infirm residents. It’s no different from other town services for which there is no expectation to break even, let alone turn a profit, including parks and beaches, the golf course, tennis courts, playing fields, libraries, senior center, public works, and more.

To those who believe that the town should not be in the business of running a nursing home, remember that Greenwich has been a community that provides services to all its residents, from birth
to end-of-life.

Just as Greenwich prides itself on the quality of its schools, infrastructure, and services for residents’ active years, it must continue to offer long term care so residents can remain within the community, spending their last years with dignity, close to friends and family.

To disregard the infirm or elderly is short-sighted and a disservice to the community, which has declared itself to be “age friendly”.

The Family Council, made up of family members of Witherell residents, has several recommendations for how to restore the facility to the excellent level of care that residents, staff and the community deserve. We expect the Board and Management to honor its commitment to an open-door policy, and look forward to working together.