Lanesborough Health Board, Physical Therapy Office at Odds Over Masks
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — After hearing several complaints about the facility last year, the Board of Health still has problems with mask compliance at Greylock Physical Therapy.
Board Chair Lawrence Spatz said staff in the facility are still not wearing masks, as required by the state Department of Public Health's guidelines. The state's most recent order, issued last October, says staff and vendors in health-care practice settings, including physical therapy, are still required to wear masks.
"When you go to any other health-care facility I've been to, they still are required, and the staff is all wearing masks," he said at Tuesday's Board of Health meeting. "Because the diseases are still out there, and especially now, in the winter, we have, now, what they're calling a 'tripledemic' which is worse than COVID itself."
The board first discussed issues with the facility last February when Food Inspector Nancy Simons-Ruderman received several complaints about masks not being used by staff. After she reached out to Lisa J. Baumgart, proprietor of GPT, about the complaints, Simons-Ruderman received a response Baumgart's lawyer telling her that further inquiries must go through their law office.
After the incident last year, Spatz said Simons-Ruderman filed an official complaint with the state but has not heard anything back.
"We don't know exactly what the state has done. We have not still not gotten any response in the state," he said. "... I still don't really know what the state is thinking or doing, but apparently, they are doing something because her attorney says they still have an ongoing issue."
Additionally, Spatz said after a recent injury, he was denied treatment by GPT because of his involvement with the Board of Health, despite his doctor's referral. He said he also received a letter explaining the same thing.
"I believe it came here, and I also got one, personally, from her attorney. Telling me that, because it was an ongoing issue between Greylock PT and the Lanesborough Board of Health, saying this was between us, that they wouldn't treat me because I was on the Board of Health," he said.
In other business:
• The board is exploring options for a potential wildlife feeding bylaw. Health Agent Colin Sykes reviewed similar regulations in Great Barrington and Stockbridge with the board members.
The board plans to vote on finalized language for the bylaw at its next meeting.
Tags: BOH, masks,
