DIETARY PROGRAM FOUND LACKING INFIRMARY LAX IN CORRECTING PROGRAM.(Local)

Byline: Elizabeth Schwartz Staff writer

The Saratoga County infirmary still has not corrected problems with its dietary program found more than a year ago by the state Health Department.

In unannounced visits in 1988 and at the end of 1989, the Health Department found that there was not enough supervision in the kitchen at Maplewood Manor.

In October, the department found that the dinner offered to patients on low-sodium diets was the same one served at lunch that day; that patients who did not like a particular meal were not offered alternatives; and that some sandwiches had so much mustard on them that residents said they could not eat them, according to Bruce Fage of the Health Department.

"Taken individually, these things might look trivial, but there were enough of them that they didn't present a very palatable picture of the dietary department," said Fage, who is director of long-term care services for the Health Department's northeastern office.

The county had no supervision in the kitchen after 5 p.m. on weekdays and after 2:30 p.m. on weekends, Fage said.

In December 1989, the county told the Health Department that it had started the process of creating two new positions, one of assistant supervisor for the dietary program and another for a cook who could be called in when necessary so the supervisor could oversee the kitchen and not have to cook, Fage said.

Lorraine Frollo, administrator of the nursing home, said the two positions are being reviewed by county Personnel Director William Baker.

Baker said he and Frollo plan to meet with Health Department officials to see if there are alternatives to hiring new staff, such as changing hours for existing staff.