Miriam Wasser / WBUR
Originally published on May 26, 2021 9:19 am
The Massachusetts Legislature should require the Holyoke Soldiers Home superintendent to be a licensed nursing home administrator, elevate the secretary of veterans services to the Cabinet, create a paid ombudsman position at both state-run soldiers homes, and impose a raft of chain of command protocols and training requirements, a panel of lawmakers concluded after reviewing the deadly COVID-19 outbreak that struck the facility last year.
In a sweeping report that directed blame at the Baker administration for failing to address poor leadership and leaving key positions unfilled, a special committee created to probe the tragedy punctuated its findings with a long list of recommended legislative actions.
A sweeping legislative report faulted the state for a COVID-19 outbreak that swept through the Holyoke Soldiers' Home last year and killed 76 veterans.
Idaho veterans home administrator Rick Holloway is trustees’ pick for Holyoke Soldiers’ Home superintendent
Updated Apr 01, 2021;
HOLYOKE Pending a final nod by Gov. Charlie Baker, Rick Holloway, administrator for a state veterans home in Boise, Idaho, will head east as the new superintendent of the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke.
Holloway prevailed over another finalist, Robert Engell, a Longmeadow resident and administrator of the Overlook Masonic Health Care Center in Charlton. Members of the selection committee agreed both candidates were qualified, but more than one said they saw Holloway as the more “transformational” of the two.
“Clearly Rick Holloway is head and shoulders above any other candidate . based, in part, on the pure depth of the answers he provided,” said Brig. Gen. Sean T. Collins, one of seven trustees of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home.