Court Opinion

ID: 9561584
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:12:31.895708+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:59.657025
License: Public Domain

*851CAREY, Justice, Pro Tem.,
specially concurring.
I agree that the administrative decision must be affirmed on the basis of the record and the law. I write to express my distaste for a system that labels a caregiver “inefficient” because it pays its employees a living wage, because it has low employee turnover, and because it provides good-quality service.
While the Department’s expert may or may not be correct in suggesting that nursing-home employees are “generally unskilled,” it is undeniable that the quality of the care they give is critical to the well-being of people who are unable to care for themselves. We judges have been witnesses to horror stories of a few nursing-home employees who not only were unskilled but also were uniquely unfit to work with the elderly and the infirm. See, e.g., State v. Grove, 120 Idaho 950, 821 P.2d 1005 (Ct.App.1991). It is a strange world indeed that punishes a caregiver for attracting and keeping good employees.
SCHROEDER, J., concurs.