Premier Genesee Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, the former county nursing home on Bank Street, Batavia, was hit by two air conditioning outages this week, according to the facility's director, but the AC is working now and portable ACs are being delivered to help improve cooling on the third, fourth, and fifth floors.
The first outage was only for a couple of hours on Monday and it was repaired that day. Yesterday, the outage lasted longer and residents were moved from the upper floors to the first-floor mall during repairs and re-cooling the building, said Executive Director Christine Schaller.
"It took a few hours to cool down the upper floors due to extreme outdoor heat," Schaller said. "We will continue checking all room temps routinely today and taking other measures to keep everyone cool."
Lisa Sofia, CEO of Premier Healthcare Management, has informed staff that 20 portable air-conditioning units have been ordered for the Batavia facility. Five are expected to arrive today and 15 on Saturday.
The units, Schaller said, will be used to assist in keeping the upper floors cool during the current heat wave.
Schaller shared an internal memo from Director of Nursing Tina Ferrando about the situation yesterday. She said state officials arrived at 1:45 p.m. to survey the situation.
"They took temperatures, interviewed residents and staff, as well as myself," Ferrando wrote. "(They) saw our plan in action -- all residents from upper units (3, 4, and 5) being comfortably cared for on the first floor -- using the mall walk, main dining room, and rehab dining rooms. It went well. We were doing everything we said we would and they seemed pleased with that."
The Batavian contacted the state's spokesman for the Department of Health. He didn't immediately have information available but said he would look into it and get back to us.
Ferrando said upper floor temps were checked about 7 p.m. and had fallen to below 81 degrees, so staff began moving residents back to those units. They were back in their units by 8:15 p.m.
"All residents were kept comfortable, enjoyed ice water, lemonade, juice, popsicles, ice cream, and other refreshments all day," Ferrando wrote, "with movies and music."
She promised supervisors will stay on top of the situation, regularly checking temperatures and immediately report any temperature increases.
UPDATE 2:30 p.m.: Statement from the State Department of Health:
“Ensuring the well-being of all nursing home residents is of the utmost importance of the state health department. We are investigating concerns related to the Premier Genesee Rehabilitation and Nursing’s air conditioning system. The Department will continue to closely monitor the situation.”
