Home Health Care
Dear Editor: As many of you know, Dr. Bruhl, SEARHC senior vice president and chief medical officer, has declared that Home Health services in Sitka have been discontinued with the “hope to work on a plan” to replace it.
Without the Home Health program, Dr. Bruhl said, “we’ll be able to provide physician home visits, we’ll be able to support people at the end of life in the hospital or even in the long-term care facility if we need to.”
This news was shocking to me and others of advanced years. We love Sitka and desire to age-in-place here, with the help of home health services.
Dr. Bruhl gave the reason for this decision was because of the “tremendous regulatory burden.” Yet Home Health care is more cost-effective than inpatient or long-term care.
I personally have bought and live in a ground-level condo with a ramp and accessible bathroom for this purpose. Home Health support is a part of this plan.
Dr. Bruhl, you said you are hoping to work on a plan for our home health needs. May I ask when and where the first meeting will be held and who will be invited? Your community needs to know that we will be supported.
Mary Stevens, Sitka
SSD Activities Funding
Dear Editor: Both Mr. Rob Woolsey of KCAW and Mr. Garland Kennedy of the Daily Sitka Sentinel provided the public with excellent coverage of the apparent diversion or misallocation of Secure Rule Schools funding provided to the SSD by the Assembly.
One finds the acting superintendent’s proffered explanation as somewhat thin, as he “attributed the missing money to a change in district accounting practices, rather than to any malfeasance.”
All right, malfeasance aside, he goes on to say “it’s nobody’s fault I’m not saying it’s the board’s fault, I’m not saying it’s Frank’s (erstwhile Superintendent) ...”
Judging from the upset echoed by many coaches, district staff and administrators, the funding was noticeably missed in the year instant, and while bureaucracies are wonderful at diffusing responsibility, since this involved public monies, somebody getting paid ought to own this.
I’m given to understand that the Assembly conveyed this funding to the SSD. What sanction if any is contemplated for a conveyance made in good faith that was not honored?
Charles Dean, Sitka
