‘Thank you’: Nursing home employees say goodbye

May 02-- May 2--NEW BEDFORD -- "Thank you for everything."

A flyer inviting Rockdale Care & Rehabilitation employees to a farewell luncheon Wednesday ended with those words of thanks, written in capital letters, underlined and italicized.

Employees gathered in the lounge to share lunch, knowing the nursing home could close within days. Only four patients remained on the first floor.

"It's just so disappointing and heartbreaking to see these people," nurse Nanna Buckley said.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced a week ago that Rockdale and the four other nursing homes in Massachusetts owned by Skyline Healthcare would close imminently, with target dates of May 3 or 24, depending on the location. Skyline is voluntarily surrendering its licenses, according to state officials.

An absentee owner has failed to pay vendors and allowed paychecks to arrive late or bounce, according to employees and to the state's petition in Suffolk Superior Court to place the nursing homes in receivership.

But the frustration and anger of employees and families goes beyond the owner. They are looking with a critical eye at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. They say the facilities are closing on short notice, forcing patients -- many of whom are elderly, long-term residents -- to move, sometimes to distant locations.

"It's incredible that the DPH, who's here to help the public, is giving us not more than a week," Buckley said. She agreed to speak to The Standard-Times because she is 71 and plans to stop working when Rockdale shuts down.

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services has emphasized that the targeted closure dates are estimates, and that the facilities will not close until patients have been moved to appropriate locations.

Buckley said some of her patients may end up Worcester.

She said Skyline owner Joseph Schwartz never should have gotten licenses to operate nursing homes in Massachusetts after Skyline's problems in other states.

DPH became aware of those problems in 2018, according to the petition for receivership filed by the office of Attorney General Maura Healey on behalf of the state. DPH contacted Skyline and the nursing homes to discuss their plans, and Skyline told DPH it had a buyer who was negotiating to purchase all five facilities, according to the petition.

But negotiations broke down, and the sale fell through by March of this year.

Like the employees, patients have starting saying goodbye -- even former patients, like Albert "Big Al" Vieira, who took a city bus to Rockdale Care & Rehabilitation from his home in New Bedford on Wednesday to thank the people who took care of him.

"Good people," he said. "The staff here is aces in my book."

Vieira spent a month in physical rehabilitation after a motorcycle accident last year.

"It's going to be a major loss when this place does close," he said.

In addition to Rockdale, the affected nursing homes are Bedford Gardens Care & Rehabilitation in New Bedford, Bedford Village Care & Rehabilitation in New Bedford, Dighton Care & Rehabilitation in Dighton, and Highland Manor Care & Rehabilitation in Fall River.

At Bedford Gardens, patient Gary Reid estimated that 10 to 12 patients remained on each of the two open floors Wednesday. The third floor is already closed.

Given the necessity of closing, the process seems to be going the way it should, he said. His roommates are already gone.

As for his own plans, he may be moving to the Sarah S. Brayton Nursing Center in Fall River, which is near his daughter, but that has not been confirmed, he said.

His sister, Charlene Angle, has suggested he move to a nursing home close to her, in Buffalo, New York, if he wants, but she does not know if moving out of state will cause insurance problems.

"I don't know where to turn, what to do," she said.

Follow Jennette Barnes on Twitter @jbarnesnews.

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