Family council urges Sullivan County to take control of Sunset Lake Adult Care Center, criticizes contracted operator

Lu Setrin, a family-council member from the town of Calicun, told the Sullivan County Human Resources Committee she and others oppose a sale or lease of the county's Adult Care Center at Sunset Lake and urged the county to take control of the facility from its consultant and contracted operator.

Setrin said she and other family-council members circulated a petition opposing relinquishing the facility and that, after reviewing the consultant's presentations and other facilities the consultant operates, she concluded that the current operator has "abjectly failed" to improve care at the facility. She described a staffing pattern in which a reported staff list showed about 160 employees, roughly half employed directly by the county and half provided through private staffing agencies, including Infinite Care and Frontline. Setrin said the facility's director of nursing was not listed and that she had been told the role was currently held by an agency RN working as a unit leader.

Setrin told the committee that agency staffing paid by the county but employed through private agencies has, in her view, produced persistent personnel problems, poor morale and declining performance measures at the Adult Care Center. She said many agency staff would benefit from county employment (with retirement and benefits) and urged the committee to encourage agency workers to apply through the county's website.

Setrin also referenced the facility's certificate-of-need application (referred to in discussion as a CLN/CON application), noting it was not recommended by a committee in November 2023 and had not appeared on subsequent meeting agendas of the State Department of Health project review committees. She described problems with notice to families about hearings and said she subscribes to the New York State Department of Health listserv to monitor agendas. "Stop throwing good money after bad and do the right thing," Setrin said.

Her comments asked the committee to consider whether the county should end the relationship with the consultant and assert operator control; she reminded officials the county is currently the operator of record. The committee proceeded to its scheduled resolutions after public comment.

The public remarks were presented as part of the meeting's public-comment period; the committee did not vote on or take formal action regarding the Adult Care Center during the portion of the meeting recorded in the transcript provided.