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red but beautiful

LOCAL HISTORY SAYS THAT WHEN THEY SHUT DOWN , THEY FORGOT TO DRAIN THE WATER PIPES OR EVEN SHUT OFF THE MAIN SUPPLY FROM THEIR OWN RESVOIR[SIC] ON SITE .NOBODY NOTICED FOR OVER A YEAR WHEN SOMEBODY NOTICED WATER RUNNING OUT OF A DOOR.THEY FINALLY SHUT OFF THE SUPPLY[DAMAGE DONE] . SAY MOTTS,WHILE I'M HERE HOW ABOUT SOME PICS FROM "GRAY GABLES"? THANKS "MOE"

Nice herring bone pattern in the wood flooring!

That's why we don't use these any more. :-)

That shot is great! Did you come on it just in time, or did you have to wait for the sun to hit exactly at the right point in the center? It is great!

Is the beam hitting the same chair as the other pic, or was it an optical illusion?

Amazing shot! You really should publish the pics in an historical account to really preser ve Byberry.

Caution: Rant Ahead. :-)

To get a better feel for the types of standards expected of various facilities, here are some examples. This does not cover facilities for people who have a mental illness, as I do not work in one currently and am less familiar with their regs.

If you run a facility for people who have intellectual disabilities you are funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services or CMS - formerly known as HCFA (Health Care Financing Administration). These folks administer the Medicaid and Medicare programs. A facility that provides services to people with intellectual disabilities (formerly called mental retardation) is known as an Intermediate Care Facility for the Mentally Retarded, or ICF-MR. For more information about this, go to:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/

People who receive funding for ICFs-MR are surveyed using the following set of regulations:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/m...intermcare.pdf
These are the ones I personally am the most familiar with and which I use to do our monthly mock surveys.

A number of states have additionally asked their facilities and programs to be surveyed by The Council on Quality and Leadership (formerly The Accreditation Council for Developmental Disabilities). They have additional sets of guidelines - "Personal Outcome Measures" and "Quality Measures 2005":

http://www.thecouncil.org/misc/cdrom/

If you have a facility that is funded for people who have need of skilled nursing services (SNF) you are surveyed using the following regulations:

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/ma...107c07.pdf

The place I currently work has two separate sections of campus; one for folks under the ICF-MR regs, one for folks with skilled nursing needs (SNF). Our campus is surveyed by both agencies.

Many hospitals or facilities also try to get accreditation under the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations or JCAHO. JCAHO has differing sets of accreditation standards depending on the specific population being served.
For example, here are their standards for assisted living facilities:
http://www.jcaho.org/h...ted+living/index.htm
Here are their standards for long term care facilities:
http://www.jcaho.org/h...care/index.htm

Additionally, facilities must meet code for the following:
->OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration):
http://www.ilo.org/pub...osha-gnh.htm
->HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996):
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/hipaa/
->National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 101 Life Safety Code:
http://www.dads.state....L90.61.htm

As an FYI, I always chuckle when someone tells me they got 100% positive ratings on a survey. This usually means that money is tight and the surveying groups are being asked to be a bit loose with the regs, or it means that a larger pattern hasn't been discovered by the surveyors, which is what you really should have before you start issuing citations, given that all facilities will always have at least a handful of areas of noncompliance.

Surveyors are like police officers. It is impossible for most of us to get through a 24-hour period without breaking a law of some sort, especially those laws we aren't familiar with but are still on the books. A police officer is supposed to figure out whether any of the one million illegal things we all do every day is of sufficient magnitude to warrant an arrest or whether there is a pattern of things that occur that makes him or her feel the need to send out a message that this is a law that needs to be followed. Littering, changing lanes without a turn signal, not following antiquated blue laws that are still on the books, jaywalking, etc., occur every day. There is a reason for many of these laws. However, at what point do you actually enforce them or consider that someone is a criminal for breaking them?

Remember too, because of the recent increase in federal budget dollars directed toward Iraq, hurricanes Katrina and Rita, plus other exciting things that are happening in our world, the federal folks are discussing slashing the Medicaid and Medicare budgets or doing away with many of the programs altogether. Most facilities that serve people with these types of needs are not currently in a financial place to afford many of the things that they are asked to provide right now. How do you think things are going to look in ten years if they cut these programs? We will be right back to where we were 50 years ago when they realized why they needed to fund these sorts of programs, and ironically, this may be seen nostalgically as one of the few times we were able to provide programs, services, and safeguards to people with severe needs.

A final FYI is this - we are trying to change the focus of our systems from "blame" to figuring out WHY problems occur. We now actually encourage the reporting of problems because if we always assume it is the person causing the problem and not the fact that the system may be faulty, we can't do anything to fix it. The danger in admitting a problem is that you often then have someone come in and play the finger-pointing game ("Oh look! They received a citation! They must be 'bad'!"), you are forced to be reactive and not proactive, and then you can't fix the problems:
http://www.ddssafety.net/...management.pdf
http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/ptsafety/chap40.htm

If we knew the coordinants of the building, I bet an aerial view can be seen with Google Earth.

From the looks of it, it looks like you could fall off of it easily if you make a wrong move.

Well, it is just about November and no demolition. Any news in that department? I lived two streets over from Byberry (Milford Street) and I remember going up to the store when patients would shuffle over there from smokes.

Why do people burn and destroy this place. It is so disrespectful.

I like to see history preserved as much as possible. I've seen too many historic buildings come down and replaced with artisticly confusing structures, such as happened in Atlantic City. Nature destroys enough history. Look at what Katrina did to New Orleans. Let us try to preserve what we have left.

Sorry, Puddleboy, you have to give up being your own self! 8`-)

No, kau, Puddleboy is a real person and he is correct.

What an odd thought! No, that is only for people on suicide watch who are unsupervised. Or for people in jail. Geez, if we took away the belts of everyone who lives in a mental health facility we would get abuse or neglect charges for letting peoples' hind ends show! 8`-)