SIGN OF THE TIMES: MASS. SOLDIERS' HOME TO CUT

SERVICES AND JOBS -- "In this climate, like every

agency out there, our budget has been cut."

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Soldiers' Home to cut jobs, services

By John Laidler
Globe Correspondent

The Chelsea Soldiers' Home is laying off up to 20 employees to absorb pending budget cuts.

The layoffs, the first to hit the state facility since the early 1990s, will affect positions ranging from doctors and nurses to housekeeping, dietary, and clerical staff, according to Michael Resca, the Soldier's Home commandant.

"In this climate, like every agency out there, our budget has been cut," he said. The Soldiers' Home, an agency within the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services, has been budgeted $26.6 million for fiscal 2010, a drop of $1.4 million over this year, according to Resca.

Last fall, anticipating a reduction, the Soldiers' Home cut the jobs of nine part-time employees, all retirees who had been rehired on a limited basis. Resca said it is hoped that the pending layoffs, coupled with the previous cuts, will provide enough savings to achieve the budget goal. Fiscal 2010 starts July 1, but the cuts are being made now to maximize savings.

Resca has identified which positions to cut. But he said the list will not be finalized until his office completes meet ings with unions this week to resolve differences over "bumping" options available to employees targeted for layoffs. Bumping refers to the contractual right of an employee whose job is being cut to take the position of a junior employee.

In existence since 1882, the Soldiers' Home encompasses 11 buildings on 23 acres atop Powder Horn Hill. It serves honorably discharged veterans from all but the four western-most counties of the state, who are aided by a soldiers' home in Holyoke.

Formally known as Soldiers' Home of Massachusetts, the Chelsea facility includes the 160-bed Lawrence F. Quigley Memorial Long Term Care Facility and dormitories that provide housing to about 300 additional veterans. It also operates a multiservice outpatient department.

The long-term care facility residents are predominantly World War II veterans, Resca said. About 60 percent of the dormitory residents are Vietnam veterans; approximately 20 percent are World War II and Korean War veterans and about 20 percent served after Vietnam.

The pending layoffs will reduce outpatient services, including the elimination of a minor day surgery unit and the pulmonary and urology clinics, and a scaling back of the eye clinic. The radiology department, which serves the long-term care center and the outpatient department, also will reduce services.

"We certainly will have to absorb the loss," said Resca. "But when the dust settles we expect one way or another to provide the same level of care that we have in prior years."

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As evidence of the quality of care, he noted that the Quigley facility, which officially transitioned from acute to long-term care two years ago, in December received a five-star rating - the highest given - from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Resca said the Soldiers' Home will work to ensure veterans do not go without needed services.

He noted that the department maintains a free daily shuttle service for veterans from its facility to US Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics in Bedford, Boston, and Brockton.

"These are challenging economic times for the many agencies of state government," Kristina Barry, spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, said in a prepared statement.

"The Chelsea Soldiers' Home is taking the difficult action of reducing their workforce due to current budget realities. Their highest priority continues to be providing, with honor and dignity, quality personal healthcare services to Massachusetts veterans."

A former Chelsea veterans agent who has held the commandant's position since 1999, Resca acknowledged this is a "tough time" for the Soldiers' Home's 388 employees.

"We have people who have been with us for long periods of time. This is the first layoff they have experienced going back to the early '90s. It's traumatic."

Stanley Troisi, a Chelsea city councilor who for the past three years has worked as a program coordinator in the commandant's office, thinks the Soldiers' Home will be able to continue to fulfill its mission.

"The Soldiers' Home employees are unique in my opinion. I've never seen people who work and really feel proud of what they do," he said. "I have no doubt we are going to be successful in maintaining what we do."

Chelsea City Manager Jay Ash said the city has always regarded the Soldiers' Home as a "tremendous resource."

"Their work on behalf of people who have made tremendous sacrifices in defense of our liberty is critical," said Ash, noting the longstanding collaboration between the Soldiers' Home and the city in such activities as the city's Veterans Day exercises.

"It's unfortunate in these times that places that could use more help are being cut back," Ash said.

"I'm confident, though, that the commandant will be able to manage a bad situation," he added. "As much as you'd like to have more people, there are a core of people still remaining with a great deal of heart and energy, and I'm sure they will do everything they can to allow the veterans to still receive a great quality of care."

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posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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