New Equipment

Nursing home fee gaining support Charging nursing homes a state fee would boost their Medicaid reimbursements -- allowing them to hire more staff and buy new equipment -- members of Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration said yesterday. Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary John M. Colmers said Maryland should join 32 other states and the District of Columbia in charging a fee of up to 2 percent of operating income of nursing homes that have at least 45 beds. That money would be matched by the federal government and be funneled back to the homes in Medicaid reimbursements, effectively sending the homes twice what they paid, Colmers said at a hearing in Annapolis.

WASHINGTON -- A billion-dollar air traffic control system that is scheduled to start service next spring will jeopardize air safety, according to the union representing the technicians who will maintain it, because it lacks alarms and monitoring systems to warn when it is beginning to fail.In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration is not sure the new software, which will not enter service until 1999 at the earliest, will function properly after the calendar rolls over to 2000.The union, the Professional Airways Systems Specialists, is seeking a delay in the phase-in, which is scheduled to begin in March 1999 at Reagan National Airport near Washington.

The Wise Avenue Volunteer Fire Company in Dundalk will show off its four new pieces of equipment worth $750,000 at a celebration and parade tomorrow featuring 65 fire engines.The parade starts at 9 a.m. at Wise Avenue and Grays Road. It will proceed on Wise Avenue and wind through several side streets before ending at the North Point Government Center, the celebration site.The celebration, which continues until 4 p.m., will feature a firefighter Olympics, a flea market with firefighting memorabilia and displays of fire and police vehicles, including the state police MedEvac helicopter.

The Oriole Advocates will be collecting used baseball equipment (bats, balls, gloves, catching gear) from fans attending Saturday's game against the Chicago White Sox at Camden Yards.The Cardboard to Leather Equipment Collection distributes the gear to youth baseball organizations in Baltimore and the Dominican Republic.Fans who would like to donate an item, but cannot attend the game, can call the Orioles' marketing department at (410) 685-9800, Ext. 2100, to make arrangements.The Sun's Jason LaCanfora spoke with Michael Fiorelli, the Orioles' assistant director of marketing, about the program.

Maryland is in the midst of another school-age population boom.This means 100,000 more kids will enter public schools within the next six years. Finding space for these students, and the money for buildings, desks, equipment and teachers could turn into a major political concern.There are more than three-quarters of a million public-school kids right now. There will be 853,000 in 2001. Howard County's school-age population will rise by one-third, Carroll, Harford and Montgomery counties' by 20 percent.

The opening of Howard County's first playground designed for physically disabled children has been delayed for about six months while the county replaces outdated equipment surrounding it.The Cedar Lane Park "barrier-free" playground in Harper's Choice village, expected to open next month, is a joint project between the county Department of Recreation and Parks and the Columbia Association. Each agency contributed $10,000 forthe specially designed, ground-level equipment installed last spring.

It usually makes more sense to improve what you already have before you replace it with a totally new structure. That applies to schools, too, which are pivotal to any neighborhood. Renovate an aging school and the entire community benefits. Build a brand-new school miles away and existing neighborhoods start to crumble.That trend has been repeated all too often in Baltimore City and in adjoining counties. The time has come to reverse that trend. And what better way than to put our state tax money into modernizing these aging public schools to stabilize older neighborhoods?

Howard County School Superintendent Michael E. Hickey last night proposed an operating budget for next school year that would increase spending by 4.3 percent, a plan he said was not extravagant.As requested by parents and staffers, the $213.6 million spending plan includes money for new teachers and new equipment for older schools. The proposed increase -- $8.8 million -- would be about half of this school year's increased spending.The proposed spending plan does not include salary increases for teachers and support service personnel which are being negotiated.

An effort to install new playground equipment at Longfellow Elementary School hit a snag this week due to what county school officials are calling a misunderstanding by PTA leaders.Although parents and children at the school have collected about $19,000, they learned that they may have to raise thousands more or re-evaluate their ambitious plans for two complete sets of equipment.Parents and school officials both agree that Longfellow needs the new equipment. Its 23-year-old playground is showing its age and is too sparsely furnished to accommodate the more than 400 students at the school.

Five Baltimore County firefighters were told they could take off work Sunday when the Fullerton station's ladder truck sprung a leak and left the night shift ladder crew with no equipment.Without any equipment in reserve, the Fullerton station has been without a 100-foot ladder truck since then. A 1966 fire engine equipped with a 35-foot extension ladder was brought in Monday afternoon as a temporary replacement and the crew returned to work. Two fire engines remained on hand at the station the firefighters on those crews stayed on duty Sunday.

Riders of MARC commuter trains will no doubt be pleased with the prospect of 26 new diesel locomotives like the one unveiled yesterday at Camden Station. It's nice that they are cleaner-burning and more energy efficient than the decrepit equipment they replace, but the prospect of improved on-time performance is much better. As any DC-bound commuter can attest, MARC has a rather casual relationship with its schedule. Surely, the only thing more frustrating than some unexplained one-hour delay is the prospect of standing the entire way because MARC had to cancel an earlier train.

A regional chain of radiology centers and its owner are in default on $1.1 million in fines for performing mammograms after one of its facilities lost its certification to perform the procedure because of equipment problems, according to documents released this week by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA issued a "notice of default" to Dr. Amile A. Korangy, owner of Korangy Radiology Associates, on June 20 after he failed to make a scheduled payment of $579,000 last month. The letter indicates the agency rejected Korangy's offer to pay $150,000 June 12, followed by payments of $100,000 per month until the debt was paid.

We applaud the effort under way in Congress to increase confidence in the integrity of voting machines used around the country, but draw no comfort from a mandate that Maryland and five other states would have a year or less to replace the expensive equipment just recently purchased. The very worthy goal of legislation expected to be taken up shortly by the House is to ensure that electronic or computerized voting equipment provide a paper backup system that can be used to verify that votes were cast as intended and to double-check tallies in the event of a recount.

A 2002 assessment of playgrounds at the county's 33 public elementary schools showed that many had outdated and potentially unsafe equipment. "Some of the playgrounds contained the original equipment that was installed when the schools were built," said Ginny Popiolek, the supervisor of physical and health education for county schools. The result is a five-year plan for upgrading, expanding and replacing the equipment at several of the schools. Under the plan - which began last year as a collaboration between the school system and the Department of Parks and Recreation - schools are selected for upgrades that range from $60,000 for new equipment to a $400,000 project at Hall's Cross Roads Elementary that includes athletic fields and a walking trail, Popiolek said.

Nursing home fee gaining support Charging nursing homes a state fee would boost their Medicaid reimbursements -- allowing them to hire more staff and buy new equipment -- members of Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration said yesterday. Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary John M. Colmers said Maryland should join 32 other states and the District of Columbia in charging a fee of up to 2 percent of operating income of nursing homes that have at least 45 beds. That money would be matched by the federal government and be funneled back to the homes in Medicaid reimbursements, effectively sending the homes twice what they paid, Colmers said at a hearing in Annapolis.

DEAR CAL -- We have four very active children, all under 13. The cost of keeping them equipped for sports is pretty substantial. We've generally gone to a used-equipment store for things like gloves, bats, cleats and helmets. But now our oldest, our son who is 12, is getting very self-conscious about using used gear and wants us to buy him new stuff. My first question - at this level (still in youth leagues), is there much difference in quality between new and used equipment? My second question - how do we explain to him, and to our other kids, that buying new equipment for everyone is simply too expensive for us?

On the heels of a sharp rise in the number of calls to help obese people, the Baltimore County Fire Department has acquired new equipment to accommodate such patients: a larger, sturdier stretcher and a ramp and winches to pull it into medical vehicles. The new equipment -- which cost about $16,000 -- was on display yesterday, as county fire officials explained that the number of calls for bariatric patients has risen eightfold in the past five years, up to as many as 40 annually. But more than just providing a needed practical capability, the equipment affords a more respectful way to serve obese patients, said Joseph Brown, director of EMS for the county fire department.

PHILADELPHIA -- In the little office at Philadelphia International Airport where unhappy US Airways customers go to file claims for missing baggage, five employees were on duty at times this week - and had very little to do. Seldom was more than one passenger with a bag problem at the counter at a time during an hour-long stretch Wednesday night. The scene was in sharp contrast to the Terminal B-C bag-claim area during last year's holiday season, when US Airways' old management didn't have enough workers and equipment on hand to meet the demand.

In an attempt to get every school onto the same technological page, the Howard County school system is phasing in a plan to get rid of about 4,000 computers, servers and other types of technology deemed behind current standards. The department, under an agreement with Apple Financial Services of Austin, Texas, will pay $1.6 million a year to lease new equipment -- including desktop and laptop computers and up-to-date operating systems -- and at the end of four years will have the opportunity to purchase each computer for a dollar.

OVER LUNCH the other day, boxing legend Mack Lewis listened as the talk got around to elephants at the Baltimore Zoo. The city has no money to keep them. The state's broke, too. So hands now reach deep into private pockets to keep the big beasts here instead of somewhere else. "How come?' said Vince Johns, digging into a plate of gnocchi that could stagger a charging rhino, if not an elephant. "Yeah, how come?" said Alan Goldstein, the former Sun sportswriter, digging into a plate of spaghetti at Sabatino's Restaurant in Little Italy.