Seeking Fort Hudson’s view

By Mark Frost, Chronicle Editor

I gave Andy Cruikshank a call last week. He’s the CEO of Fort Hudson Health System. That’s a hard job. Especially now. Nursing homes are ground zero in the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide. Locally, nearly all the people dying are or were in nursing homes.

I wondered how Andy sees things. I wondered how he, the staff and the patients and residents are coping.

I talked to him twice, including on a day when Fort Hudson’s COVID death toll doubled from two people to four. The virus took hold in — and only in — Fort Hudson’s “S” wing for ambulatory Alzheimers and other cognitively impaired patients.

Andy was somber but in no way defeated.

“Our staff morale honestly is strong. I have been overwhelmed by the dedication of our staff,” he said.

He labels on-site Hudson Headwaters physician Dr. John Quaresima “an absolute hero.”

Andy says the S wing’s staff has “always ‘owned’ their work, ‘owned’ the unit and ‘owned’ the residents. And they have taken that to a new level. They know that they’re here as the surrogate family and they take that personally.”

Andy tells of video “zoom” chats that have let as many as 10 family members at a time connect with COVID-19 patients whom they can’t visit in person. He says more than a hundred people have joined in zoom info sessions linking families and Fort Hudson staff.

Some relatives, garbed in protective gear, do get to visit Covid-sickened loved ones. “We don’t have more than two [visitors] in a room,” Andy says. “They can’t touch the patient. It’s very safe. They have to maintain distance.”

“The community has been great,” as well, Andy says. He quips that staff members have “never eaten so well,” because so many people are providing meals. Last week, as our freelancer Jason Irwin chronicled on Facebook, a parade went by saluting all area nursing home workers.

Eventually, as you probably figured, I asked Andy about Andrew Cuomo.

“I think Governor Cuomo’s done a lot of good things, a lot of decisive actions when it comes to public health and control. I applaud him…” he said. “One of the best things was he shut down the schools. Taking the kids out of the risk pool was huge.”

But as to nursing homes generally, “the governor and Commissioner of Health have turned their back,” Andy said.

“It’s easier to blame than support,” he said.

Andy said the state disconnect isn’t new. “You look at how the governor has treated nursing homes. We got another budget cut effective April [after] we got another one on January 1.” He suggests Mr. Cuomo “just lumps it in with Medicaid,” a financial black hole the state wishes would go away.

As for Mr. Cuomo’s command weeks ago that nursing homes must accept patients diagnosed COVID-19 positive, Andy said it came out of the blue, with no consultation or discussion. He said one such patient did arrive at Fort Hudson, was treated, recovered and went home.

But Andy called the order “a slap in the face” that overrode a nursing home’s discretion to decide what it can handle in treating “the vulnerable, the susceptible.”

“Blaming the nursing home is what is happening now,” Andy said. He says the state proceeds as if “the nursing home did something” wrong. He calls it “disrespectful to staff” and damaging to morale and says “it does not do anything to lessen the burden that nursing homes have already, and improve society’s view of nursing homes.”

At Fort Hudson “we treat more Covid [patients] than the two local hospitals combined,” Andy said, adding that Fort Hudson’s “treatment is not different than what a hospital would provide, short of mechanical ventilation.”

He says, “Hydration, lV’s, medical treatment, hands-on care — with people that the residents know and the residents trust.”

In short Andy vouches for the staff and the care that Fort Hudson provides, combating a new, scarcely understood, incredibly contagious disease that victimizes the vulnerable.

Andy wasn’t worked up. He wasn’t on a rant. But when I asked a question, he answered it.

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