JOHNSTOWN — Fulton County supervisors on Monday authorized disposal of certain former county nursing home records beyond their statutory retention rate.
The original resolution was tabled in May by the board of supervisors. But it was brought up on the floor under old board business Monday for a vote again by Johnstown 3rd Ward Supervisor Jack Callery.
County Administrative Officer Jon Stead said County Clerk Ann Nickloy recommended the original resolution to shred the documents.
Nickloy had told supervisors in June that old, former Fulton County Residential Health Care Facility documents stored at the Fort Johnstown Annex on East Montgomery Street could be purged. The clerk said about 90 cubic feet of records are eligible for destruction. Records include: dietary services; Medicare, Medicaid and insurance claim records; pharmacy receipts and storage records, inservice training records, daily census reports, admission and discharge registers, and menus and food procedure records.
The 176-bed facility on County Highway 122 in the town of Johnstown was sold by the county to strengthen it’s financial footing. The sale in March 2012 was for $3.5 million to a private company — Bronx-based Centers for Specialty Care. The private facility is now known as the Fulton Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare.
“I did view the records,” County Attorney Jason Brott told the board Monday at the County Office Building.
He said there exists about 60 to 70 boxes from the county nursing home.
“A lot of them have passed their statutory retention rate,” he said.
But Brott said there were two boxes he recommended not be destroyed. He said the boxes contain documents on “incident and accident reports” going back to 2009. He suggested those files be retained in the event of future legal action.
The board passed a resolution, as amended, to dispose of all the records with the exception of the two boxes containing “incident/accident reports” through 2009.
