‘Staff out there crying’: Nursing home closures begin in New Bedford

NEW BEDFORD 2019--NEW BEDFORD -- Employees' subdued conversations broke the quiet at two New Bedford nursing homes targeted for closure Friday. They were empty of patients, like a dormitory at the end of the year.

But it's the end of much more for the patients, who in some cases have lived in the nursing homes for 20 years or longer.

"We're completely empty," nurse Nanna Buckley said outside Rockdale Care & Rehabilitation.

Bedford Gardens Care & Rehabilitation moved its last 14 patients Thursday.

Administrator Steven Haase had few words.

"Sad, disappointed," he said.

The facilities are among five nursing homes owned by Skyline Healthcare that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced April 24 would close in the coming weeks.

The company's failure to pay bills led to supply shortages, dwindling staff, telephone shutoffs, and an imminent threat of workers' health insurance being canceled at some locations, according to court documents the state filed to place the homes in receivership.

Not all locations were affected to the same degree by shortages. At Rockdale, for example, employees told The Standard-Times the facility was never short-staffed.

Receiver KCP Advisory Group gave Bedford Gardens and Rockdale a targeted closure date of May 3. The others -- Bedford Village Care & Rehabilitation in New Bedford, Dighton Care & Rehabilitation in Dighton, and Highland Manor Care & Rehabilitation in Fall River -- are targeted to close May 24, pending relocation of patients.

Grace Williamson, supervisor of nursing at Bedford Village, expressed frustration with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for not intervening sooner.

"I just think DPH needs to be held accountable," she said. "To do this is barbaric. I'm sorry -- it really is."

She said 80 percent of the staff and residents have been there 10, 20, or even 30 years. With three weeks remaining until the target date, 17 of the 48 patients have moved out.

"We just let go of two of our patients today, and the whole staff was out there crying," she said.

Another nursing employee at Bedford Village said staff members contacted DPH as far back as May 2018, after they went out to shop for hams for residents' Easter meal because the food vendor stopped delivering food.

DPH spokeswoman Ann Scales acknowledged that the department became aware of Skyline's difficulties in other states in 2018. Skyline told DPH it was negotiating with a buyer, and DPH was monitoring the situation, she said.

"Once the situation became unstable, in March, after the sale fell through, DPH met with the licensee and regularly sent surveyors to make unannounced visits to all five nursing homes," Scales wrote in an email. "When the licensee voluntarily offered to surrender its license, DPH sought a receiver to ensure the safe transfer of residents because of the unstable financial situation."

Nursing home administrators at Highland Manor and Dighton were not available by phone Friday.

At Bedford Gardens, Haase said he plans to be around for a few more days, as employees clean up and process medical records. Personnel files will be secured as well, he said. After that, "I'll be looking for employment, like everybody else."

Although nearly 100 percent of his patients moved to facilities in New Bedford and surrounding communities, some went as far as Lowell, generally because of behavioral issues, such as smoking, he said. Many nursing homes do not have enough employees to send staff outside to supervise patients who smoke.

Haase said the SouthCoast has more than enough beds for the typical patient, but some patients are hard to place.

He also sought to correct his April 22 statement that paychecks bounced. Employees thought their paychecks were bouncing, but in reality, holds were placed on the checks because they came from an out-of-state bank that was not the usual source of their paychecks, he said. The checks later cleared, Haase said.

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