CALAIS, Maine — The 32 residents of the Atlantic Rehabilitation and Nursing Center facility in Calais who are facing displacement have very few options for local relocation, a study by the city of Calais shows.
The 50-bed Washington County nursing home and assisted living facility faces closure under a business plan by its owner, Portland-based First Atlantic Healthcare. That news caught residents, staff and their families by surprise.
First Atlantic planned to close the facility March 1, but backed off from that date after a three-hour meeting with Washington County’s political delegation, which is eager to find a way to keep the 39-year-old facility open. Maine State Senate President Kevin Raye, who lives in Washington County, has been orchestrating discussions with city officials and others about strategies for keeping the nursing home and assisted living facility up and running, even if First Atlantic bails.
First Atlantic CEO Kenneth Bowden said Tuesday he is eager to find a way to keep the facility’s doors open, but said that goal is being undermined by residents moving out in recent weeks. Given the cloud of uncertainty that looms over the facility, some residents have already made alternative living arrangements and have relocated.
“We haven’t announced closure, and I hope we won’t,” Bowden said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “We are trying to find a financially viable path forward. But, in the past two weeks, we’ve lost 35 percent of our revenue, which has added to the financial pressure.
“It’s real challenging to find a way to keep the doors open, given the financial environment. The community and our company face the same problem: trying to find a solution for a financially viable facility as we move forward.”
Residents who remain at the facility face an uncertain future. In a letter of appeal of First Atlantic’s plan to close the facility, Calais Mayor Joseph Cassidy told state officials that there are very few nursing home placement options within Washington County.
“It is unlikely that all of the residents from the Calais facility could even be placed in Washington County or neighboring county facilities,” his letter to Mary Mayhew, the state commissioner of Health and Human Services, reads in part. Cassidy says a Feb. 2 phone survey showed there were 18 beds available collectively in Ellsworth, Houlton, Jonesboro, Lincoln, Lubec and Milbridge. Other regional facilities polled are not only filled, the survey shows, but have waiting lists.
Cassidy’s letter also stresses the distance between Calais and what few nursing home beds are available elsewhere. It includes an analysis of one-way drive times from Calais to other regional nursing homes, which range from 2 hours, 36 minutes to the Mountain Heights facility in Patten to 40 minutes to Eastport.
Cassidy notes that drive times would be affected by where families live. The remaining 32 residents at the Calais facility are from Baileyville, Calais, Pembroke, Princeton, Robbinston and Topsfield.
Should the Calais facility be closed, 92 staff members will lose their jobs, including 50 nursing staff represented by Teamsters Local 340. The union and First Atlantic plan to meet later this week to discuss the situation. Bowden said the current contract with the Teamsters bargaining unit expires within a few months.
Mayhew has 30 days to determine if a reconsideration hearing is warranted. If there is such a hearing, it would have to happen within 60 days of her determination.
Bowden said First Atlantic plans to break ground this spring on an expansion of its nursing home in Ellsworth. That project would add beds to the company’s Colliers Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Ellsworth. Ground has yet to be broken on the expansion of the Ellsworth facility, which is estimated to cost $8.5 million. Bowden said Tuesday that could happen this summer, with a completion timeline of two years.
The expansion in Ellsworth will include 16 nursing facility beds, 30 residential care level IV beds and 10 assisted living apartments.
First Atlantic also wants to build a new facility in Bucksport of a similar size and scope of services to the expanded Collier’s facility in Ellsworth.
When I go over the border into Canada, I don’t see anything like this, throwing the elderly and disabled out into the streets.
Good place for you to stay
everything over there is goverment subsisized
If a place can`t afford to keep the doors open then what choice does it have
Maybe the families need to step in and start caring for their family
I am wondering if you have any idea what toll it takes on families and the patient when they are admitted to a nursing facility. It is not a decision easily made. 24/7 care of a loved one with alz, dementia, and other disabling illness is emotionally, physically exhausting and heart breaking. Families do everything they can to keep their loved on at home but there comes a point when safety is an issue and NF placement is needed. It is unspeakable for a state to not take care of it own citizens and for communities not to be able to keep loved ones in the area. First Atlantic is now blaming residents leaving on their financial status – give me a break. First Atlantic thought they could sneak in and close the facility and people and the community would quietly stand by and let it happen. Shame on them! If they can expand and build new facilities they can afford to make the renovations needed to keep this one open and benefit so many people. Ethically they could have been honest, upfront, placed the facility up for sale, so many other options then the underhanded way they have treated the residents and staff at Atlantic Rehab.
This company has done this before in another area of Maine they must pick which facilities they are never going to put work into and use it as some sort of write-off or something…I would never trust this company seems like they dont have any compassion at all and it is all about the “BUCK”…your right shame on them!
You obviously don’t have this issue.
There may comes a point in time where, (like myself and my sisters), an elderly mother or father need 24 hour care that can’t be provided by the family.
If you actually have to face this, then you know it is not as easy as your sound bite “solution”, which only sounds good in theory, and is not realistic.
In the case of my mother, she has vascular dementia, and needs to be monitored 24/7. She had fallen four times (three at home where she lived with my sister) and broken both of her hips. My sister was sleeping after working a night shift at the Hospital and woke up terrified calling an ambulance. That’s three times in two months with the attendant stress and hysteria of an ambulance ride to the hospital. There was no choice but an assisted living facility.
In the case of other relatives, father-in-law has a stroke, mother-in-law does the 24/7 care, but ONLY because of the fact that she was trained as a nurse ans is healthy AND has a lot of her day to day errands taken care of by multiple family members. She is a trooper, and amazing.
This would be impossible if both of them fell ill.
Put another way, do you think you could give up your job (not “lifestyle”, your employment) to take care of an elderly family member 24/7?
In my case , our family did step up to the plate and neither of our partents were placed in a
nusring ( death ) home. We promised our parents we wouldn`t abandon them to that kind of life.
Even when it would be easier on our life and wallets we said no. Brothers and sister took turns daily caring for them instead of strangers. It is the least a child can do for the person that gave life to them
So to answer your question we did turn our world upstide down for our loved ones.
And we are better for it.
Sound’s like you had a big enough family to go round that is not always the case and that is why alot of them go into the nursing homes they either have no family or very few…I have to say that it is wonderful that you were able to do that for your mom and dad I would want to do the same as well if I was able to.
Very good way of explaining this to that person kudos to you….
Exactly what gives you the right to make those decision…by the sounds of it maybe you shouldnt be in this country. Easy for you to say….dont think you have been in health care to even have any idea how difficult it is to take care of people who NEED nursing home care…it is too much for a family member who works most likely 40 hrs a week to try to take care of someone who is bed bound. Really before giving out your advise like that maybe you should really put some thought into it. Just saying the elderly should be taken care of 24/7 and never have to ever worry about their living arrangements what this company has done is emotionally abusive to residents, families and workers they kept it a secret from the community for atleast a year that is wrong.
The following was taken from a BDN article on Jan24:
One facility staffer, who asked not to be named, said First Atlantic Healthcare issued orders about six weeks ago to stop accepting new patients and residents. No reason was tendered, the source said, and six applicants have been turned away since then.
This is quoted from the above article:
“First Atlantic CEO Kenneth Bowden said Tuesday he is eager to find a way to keep the facility’s doors open, but said that goal is being undermined by residents moving out in recent weeks.”
Sounds like First Atlantic Healthcare had their minds already made up and are trying to save face by shifting the blame onto the families affected by this. They will close but it won’t be because of lack of demand for their services it will be to the lack of interest First Atlantic Healthcare has shown for this facility.
No Sprucedweller you dont “see” this happening in Canada. What you see are people waiting for cancer treatments for months on end, while the cancer ravages their bodies. You see no choice in doctors or treatments. You see people out of work while waiting ” their turn” to get a procedure done to take away the pain of a ruined knee. All while being taxed through the nose for it. You pay one way or the other I’ll take what we have any day. Its not perfect and it aint cheap but its still better than socialized medicine.
All I’m saying is things like this do happen in Canada and its not the ideal healthcare model that some people think it is.
Someone in Washington County could always buy this nursing home and run it to keep it open. OH wait it is different when we are talking about someone else running a failing business. No one want to put up they just want to run thier mouths. How about if the Washington County Commissioners offer to run it and make the business losses part of the county tax.
I agree with you mainemomforsanity about the ” run their mouth ” comment. To often on these boards people type without thinking or to stir the pot. I dont think that is the case here. People are frustrated, and worried about where to get care for their elderly family members, that they wouldn’t have to travel hours to see them. The nursing home has been a fixture in this community for as long as I can remember, but you are correct in stating that it is a business. The problem I have is the careless manner in which the state took First Atlantic at its word that the spare capacity was in the area to accept these patients. They lied. The spare capacity they were speaking of was in the, as yet to be built addition in Ellsworth. I’m no Geography professer but I can tell you Ellsworth is not in the Calais area.
Do you honestly think First Atlantic would sell to anyone whos intention was to run a care facility in direct competion with them?
I am not sure what First Atlantic thinks about anything as they certainly are not thinking of the residents, families and staff. There are wait list all over the state for NF placement. Yes First Atlantic is a business but it is a business that is suppose to care about people. They apparently don’t want to stay in Calais or care about the people -they are a disgrace for a company and I shutter to think of all the facilites they do own in the state when the bottom dollar is money- not people.
You are correct in everything you say Baileyville56. This is what happens when “bean counters” , that only see the bottom line are in charge. I think their intentions were all slanted in this direction when they bought out Barnards Nursing Home. Buy out the competion, consolidate to cut costs and increase bottom line. Compassion is rarely seen in business in our country anymore. Wether its how they treat their employees or their customers very few businesses seem to care anymore about anything other than the bottom line. Wal-Mart and First Atlantic are two very good examples. Its not right and its not the humane thing to do and it burns my but.
Whether it is right or wrong First Atlantic is a business. The one goal of a business is to make money if it does not make money it closes or it sells out to someone else who thinks they can do it better. You have to remember that they are talking profit and loss in that board room not Gramma and Grandpa, as much as that hurts and as hard as it is. I think hte people in WC need to get someone to buy it if they want it kept open or help First Atlantic find a way to make it profitable for them to stay there, tax incentives, bettter labor relations, there are lots of things that can be done but it requires sacrafice from more than just the employer here. Baileyville56 the purpose of a nursing home is to take care of people not to care for people. Businesses are emotionless its profit and loss.
The desired outcome of any business is to make money. I agree with you on that. However, when you are talking about human beings not furniture it does make a difference. First Atlantic was underhanded when they approached the state last year and wrote in the report not to disclose this info to the public. It may not have been illegal but sure is unethical. If the community was informed last year the outcome may have been different. Also if Atlantic had made yearly improvements that were needed and not let the facility decay it would have made a difference. It is apparent to me that they wanted to make what they could of the people who live there and then dispose of the property. Their goal now appears to be to blame others on the circumstances. People in Washington County are not disposable and deserve to be able to remain in their community near loved ones. You mention that NF is to take care of people not care for people. Isn’t it sad to think that the United States can send billions of dollars over sees, out source business to other countries to make money but cannot spend money on local communities? We need to care about people and support business and employees who care. I wonder how the owners would respond if one of their loved ones were treated in this manner?
Maybe if the employees took a paycut in relation to the loses the company it may stay open. But aren`t the employees part of the teamsters union
The bottom line is the company is there to make money just like the employees are there to make money. You want them to work for a lose then maybe the employees should volunteer their time in leau of wages.
Maybe the renovations needed can be made by volunteers.
But the contractor is going to want to make a living and has bills to pay.
Atlantic rehab did get state approval to close the facility
Why didn`t the state notify the residents and family about the need to move
Atlantic rehab is a business for profit not a non-profit business
employees take a pay cut-in lieu of wages- you are missing my point. — check out the pay rate for staff- it is not top dollar and the staff work very hard to make the facility a home for the residents. Maybe you can afford to work for free but the staff there can’t. My point is more about the residents and the lack of ethical behavior by First Atlantic. First Atlantic received approval last year to close the faciity-when were the residents, family and staff notified?? It was up to the business to notify individuals and they did not. There was not time given for volunteers to donate building materials or time to make repairs. That said- a company is responsible to make needed repairs to a “business” to keep it viable and to continue to make money. So many things are wrong with this but ultimately the residents, families, and employees are facing rapid life changing events and it is shameful how it has been handled.
try working in a nursing home for the pay you get and see if you would take a pay cut. CNA’s are invaluable but are least paid, they are the foundation of a nursing home providing excellent care. They may be getting hit, cursed at and breaking their backs but they go back to provide someone’s family members with exceptional care. Some staff are the only ones residents see as a lot of family don’t visit.
This company planned this out it is nothing but “dirty” business and any excuse is good for them it had nothing to do with losing money in the area he is not from the area and from what I have learned wants to more is businesses from ellsworth up to southern part of maine…it is their business and can do what they like with it but when it comes to dealing with people the way they have someone else needs to take over because ppl like that shouldnt have anything at all to do with health care especially elderly ppl. It is so sad for those ppl to have to be moved away from their loved ones and the family “staff” they knew. We all have to get old at some point we will just have to see how some of us feel then.
The company begins the closure procedure and then complains that they can’t keep it open because patients are leaving. I wonder if they even admit that the patients are leaving because the company wanted to close the nursing home. I think we can forget this one — this home is closed unless someone else takes it over.
Why isn’t there any mention of the Eastport Nursing Home, I am sure they have some beds available?
They are full.
All NF in Washington County have a wait list.
mainemomforsanity and kylieoo are correct in stating that ARNC is a business and are in business to make a profit. However as Dr Mchugh put it in the Calais Advertiser “healthcare is not a commodity to be moved to the market that promises the fastest and greatest profits with no concern for those hurt in the process”. How do you think Bangor would react if EMMC decided to close up shop and move to the Portland area? We are not talking about widgets and gadgets here, these are PEOPLE!! With all the government reimbursments given to places like ARNC we should all have a say in whether or not they stay open. Perhaps, if there sole concern is profits we can pull all government reimbursements and see how their “profits” shrink.
Just for the record Marshall’s in Machias is owned by First Atlantic and the residents receive wonderful care and I personally totally enjoy my job there