Eastern Shore Undercover Editorial: The Wicomico County Nursing Home Shouldn’t Be A Political Battlefield

For the past month, everyone in Wicomico County has been talking about the Wicomico County Nursing Home. We have had press conferences from the county executive. We have had press conferences from the NAACP.

The county council has given people time to speak at meetings. Current and former employees, along with families of residents, have shown up again and again to share their concerns during public comments.

Most of the complaints point at the new administrator, Tina Foskey, the Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano, and her office. People are upset about how recent staff terminations and departures have been handled, and without question there is extreme exaggeration with both.

It is easy to point fingers at new leadership when the full story is not known. But that finger pointing is taking attention away from what should matter most.

The residents who live at the nursing home should be the main focus. Their care and their comfort should come first, not the effort to take down a few individuals, and posture during an election.

Let's go over some of what was said at today's council meeting. There is a lot to cover, so I will not touch on everything. You can watch the full video on PAC-14 if you want all of the details (When it becomes available).

One thing stood out to me. Some of the same people complaining about a lack of oversight at the nursing home are now upset that oversight is happening. 

For months, people said no one from the county was paying attention. Now that staff from the county executive's office are checking in regularly, some are calling them "henchmen."

You cannot have it both ways. Either you want someone watching over the nursing home, or you do not, but to complain now because someone is there daily, is unreasonable.

I also want to bring up comments from NAACP President Monica Brooks. She said calling this situation political, which many people believe is the case, was tacky, childish, and inappropriate. Those are her words, not mine.

She pointed out that Delegate Sheree Sample-Hughes and Wicomico County Council Member Shanie Shields both have family at the nursing home. She noted both women won their primaries and have no opponent this November, in the general election.

She was basically belittling the thought of this being called political posturing. She is right about that, both of those ladies do or have had family in the nursing home.

What she did not mention is fact that someone else has an election coming up in November, and that is Ernest Davis, who just so happens to be running for County Executive against our current county executive, Julie Giordano.

Some may have forgotten that Mr. Davis spoke at the NAACP press conference about the nursing home. And also, did we forget that there was a voter registration booth set up at the town hall meeting on this issue about the nursing home.

Make of that what you will but I would think that is leaning more on the side of political than not?

Now let's talk about Council Member Shanie Shields. She said good employees are leaving out of fear of being fired, and that this costs them their accrued time off.

That raises a fair question. If someone is not doing their job well, why should they stay in that position? And shouldn't they be held accountable? 

For months, people asked the county to step in and hold staff accountable. Now that something is happening, it is being called poor leadership.

At one point, Shields brought up that the employees in question are people of color and those who are women. It is worth asking what that has to do with how a nursing home is run.

Care for residents and treatment of staff should never come down to the color of their skin, their sex, their religion or where they are from. The nursing home administrator is a woman, and our county executive is a woman too, so again, why was this even mentioned?

Then, in what can only be called an uncomfortable moment in time, Shields stated that she would like to see proof that problems existed at the nursing home and see it for herself, to which Council Member James Winn spoke up and reminded her that an email was sent to all council members, giving that info.

Shields then became noticeably angry and aggressive toward Council Member Winn. You can watch that exchange for yourself on PAC-14, and you can be the judge about her antics and actions during the council meeting.

Mrs. Shields may not think so but change was very much needed, and here is just one example of why.

I found this in a public state inspection report. Inspectors found that the nursing home failed to give a resident medication the correct way.

The report explains that accurate medication records matter because residents often take several medications for serious health conditions. I think we can all agree, this is very important. A dosing mistake can put someone's life at risk, and in this incident, it did.

This particular case involved a complaint that a resident died after being given the wrong dosage of medication. That should make the hair on your neck stand up and concern everyone.

A doctor had ordered the antibiotic Cefepime to be given once every 24 hours for seven days. On three separate days, nursing staff gave the resident that same medication twice instead of once.

The resident's doctor confirmed the order was for one dose a day. He said he learned about the mistake from a nurse at the facility. The facility's own pharmacy manager confirmed the same order, signed by the doctor on January 30, 2025.

That is a serious failure, and it should come with real accountability.

As we close this out, I think most people agree that an advisory board is a good idea and probably long overdue. I believe our county executive would agree with that too.

I also support the idea of an appointment confirmation process for future nursing home administrators. Quarterly meetings with the administrator make sense as well.

These are all reasonable steps that the Wicomico County Council has expressed and desires.

Here is where I have a problem. The proposed legislation would let the council terminate the nursing home administrator with a 5-2 vote. That goes against the county charter, the citizens voice, and will absolutely cost taxpayers of Wicomico County a lot of money in lawsuits, and the worst part, the Council knows it!

There has also been talk about needing to pass this as emergency legislation because it is urgent. This was discussed time and time again and many said that the advisory board was the most important aspect of this legislation.

Originally, the date for this to be effective was November 17, 2026, which shows it is important and shows urgency.

Yet at today's council meeting, an addendum was made and voted on that says the advisory board will not start until the 2028 budget session, which really means July of 2027.

If something is truly an emergency, and the most important aspect of all this legislation, then why would it wait so long to take effect? Can you see the issue here?

Is it fair to question the true direction of all this legislation and whether this is more about one last political jab at County Executive Julie Giordano before her election, then the welfare of those loved ones in the Wicomico County Nursing Home.

At the end of the day, we need to stop pointing fingers. We need to stop all the he said, she said, they said, etc. We need to come together as a community, take ALL political avenues OUT of the equation, regardless of if you vote red, blue or somewhere in between, and focus ONLY on making the Wicomico County Nursing Home a better environment for everyone, not just a few but for everyone!