CALAIS, Maine — Nearly 100 health care workers will lose their jobs and 18 elderly residents will be forced to relocate should a decision Friday by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services stand, and the Atlantic Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Calais close.
The DHHS ruling is not final, as the case could be appealed to Superior Court. No one on Friday, however, indicated the decision would be appealed.
DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew reaffirmed Friday that the final elements of the certificate of need her department approved last fall included the closure of the 39-year-old nursing home and construction of a new facility 90 miles away in Ellsworth. The certificate of need application was submitted by nursing home owner First Atlantic Healthcare of Portland. The city of Calais had asked Mayhew in April to review the case to make sure the nursing home’s closure had been approved as part of the certificate of need.
The nursing home’s closure would leave Calais without any licensed skilled-care nursing home beds, and other facilities in Washington County have lengthy waiting lists.
“The undisputed evidence in the record establishes that continued operation of Atlantic Rehabilitation would not be economically feasible,” Mayhew said in her ruling.
First Atlantic CEO Kenneth Bowden said at a public hearing in April the facility was drowning in red ink, estimating that expenses in 2011 exceeded revenues by $272,000. In the first two months of this year, he said, the 59-bed facility was running $131,000 in the red, due in part to a dwindling resident census prompted by fears of closure.
Bowden told the Bangor Daily News on Friday he was “pleased” by Mayhew’s decision, and said the dwindling number of residents in the Calais facility — now down to 18 — does not support the cost of keeping it up and running.
“We haven’t yet put together a plan for closure,” he said. “We’re beginning a discussion here, and we will have a plan to close the facility at some point.”
Bowden has been eager to meet with Calais city officials about possibly assuming ownership of the facility, claiming that reimbursement rates for publicly owned nursing homes are significantly higher than the rates for private-sector facilities.
“I am not unsympathetic to the concerns raised by the city,” Mayhew said in her ruling. “And I urge First Atlantic and the city to work cooperatively in good faith toward an alternative solution that would address the need for nursing facility beds in Calais and northern Washington County.”
Calais City Manager Diane Barnes said Friday the city “will strive for solutions and will explore the feasibility of any options.
“The city of Calais is very disappointed in the commissioner’s decision,” Barnes said Friday. “It did not take into consideration the impact on the families involved. As a result of this decision, this area will be underserved in terms of access to nursing home care.”
Also disappointed is Washington County’s legislative delegation, including Maine Senate President Kevin Raye, a Washington County resident.
“I am profoundly disappointed in the decision,” Raye said Friday. “If Calais is left with a closed facility, it will be a cruel and severe blow to the residents, their families, the hard-working employees and all of northern Washington County.
“There is a strong local determination to prevent this terrible loss, and I hope that First Atlantic will work with the community in a way that will ultimately lead to preserving a nursing home presence in Calais.”
Raye said the closing of the Calais facility will reduce the number of nursing home beds from 222 to 170, which he pointed out is a “ 23 percent decrease at a time when our elderly population is increasing. That is not an acceptable outcome, and I will continue to work with local leaders to explore options in an effort to prevent that from occurring.”
Also expressing concern was Joyce Maker, a state representative from Calais.
“The commissioner’s ruling will mean severe hardship for the remaining residents and their families,” she said. “While I am very disappointed, I will by no means accept the closure as a done deal. We will be meeting with the city of Calais next week to see what short-term solutions we can work out with First Atlantic to try and keep the residents in Calais.”
Mayhew’s ruling on Friday came in the wake of an April 5 public hearing in Calais that attracted more than 100 people. Virtually all spoke in opposition to the state’s certificate of need approval, citing a chronic shortage of skilled-care beds in Washington County.
Barnes said Friday the city “will strive for solutions and will explore the feasibility of any options.”
Traci Place, who represents nurses and other workers at the facility who are members of Teamsters Union Local 340, said the union is “disappointed” with Mayhew’s decision to affirm the certificate of need approval.
“This decision was our worst fears confirmed,” she said. “We were hoping that DHHS would stand up for the elderly in Washington County. It’s also tragic for the workers there. They don’t know how long they will have jobs.”
As the number of the nursing home residents has decreased, some of the facility’s workers already have been let go, while others have been cut back to part time.
This is a bunch of BS…as for the company that owns the nursing home and to DHS who made the approval to emotionally disrupt the clients/their families, and all the employees/their families. The company thats getting away with all this should be run by someone with a caring heart and DHS might as well not exist anymore because your not that helpful these days especially to your elders…..This company owes it to the Calais people to fix the nursing home that they were suppose to do in the first place from the time they bought it and did not, and after it is finished give it to the City Of Calais!
Not saying it’s right what they are doing but it’s a private business and they are free to do what they want with their operations. I wasn’t aware the people of Calais were entitled to a refurbished building from the people at First Atlantic. In reality, if someone comes in and purchases it they need to flatten it. The place looks like it’s sinking into the ground. Rebuild something that is more efficient and suits the needs of the area. Look at the mill in Baileyville, it was shut down and eventually someone bought it and started it back up.
Not that easy to just start a nursing home up! If First Atlantic takes our “beds” then there can’t be a nursing home in Calais…that is the issue, First Atlantic is a business leave, but keep the beds in Calais! This will leave way for another business to move in, or the city, or the hospital but without those crucial bed rights there won’t be a home!
It may be a private business but the nursing care beds are Maine Citizens. If we had any representatives in Augusta from Washington County that cared about its citizens they would introduce legislation that would forbid the nursing beds being taken from a community in need and putting them elsewhere in the state.
Who is being served here? The citizens or the corporation??
Closing this nursing home is an act of extreme cruelty and, given the economic climate, stupidity. Casting our elders and caring jobs into the streets–for Shame on the LePage Administration.
History will look back at us and weep at our ignorance. We have become the epitome of everything the Bible or even a simple parable in a children’s book tells us is selfish, sinful and mean.
Why?
Why?
Shut ‘er down.
Is there anything other than druggies left in Calais??
Evidently there are elderly people there who need care.
Please move to Texas
Free country.
Free enterprise.
Freedom of choice.
Tough decisions had to be made.
I suspect you would feel differently if your elderly loved one needed nursing home care…..
“Tough decisions had to be made?” Pffffft.
100 more Maine Residents will be unemployed, so his “Open for Business” sign/slogan, doesn’t apply to the hard working Mainers, so sad.
Boy there are a lot of rude people who don’t care for the elderly. Hope they have the same love for them when they get old. My mom is there and I do care where she is spending her remaining years and the other residence are like family along with the workers. I have shed many tears for those who have had to leave crying. I also agree if a business isn’t making money they have the right to move on but don’t take our chance to have someone else try to make a go of it. If this hadn’t been so sneaky and they were up front maybe things would have turned out different. Please notice I am not hiding from anyone my feelings as I use my name. God Bless our senior citizens.
Totally agree with you Sue there are some pretty rude people who don’t care, but don’t you worry some day the ones making these rude comments won’t have anyone to care for them and maybe they will be put on the streets to live….and btw this is Michelle.
Seems that DHHS could care less about the needs of the elderly. Giving their approval to the separating of families, disrupting and distressing the residents, and putting people out of work is all in a days work at DHHS.
Most people in nursing homes know they are at (or are nearing) the end stage of life. They need their loved ones around them, to live with a sense of home and stability their nursing home provides, the familiarity of the staff who work with them, and the friendships of the other residents they have come to know. Thank you DHHS for (once again) destroying things for these poor folks.
Dianne1 you are so right and that is what’s breaking my heart! I am an employee I can find another job but those elderly residents shouldn’t have to find another home… so sad!
It seems that the Republican/MHPC/ALEC/Tea Party in power in Augusta have very short memories. Washington County voted overwhelmingly for these politicians. This is the thanks you can expect, unless you are paying off. Since the poor elderly in Washington County seem to be of no importance to the Republicans in power now, there will be no stopping this rape of the citizens of Washington County.
It would seem to me that there should be an investigation into the relationship between Mary Mayhew and First Atlantic.
I do believe there should be an investigation between the relationship status because something just don’t seem right….nice post.
I wonder how Orono and Cape Elizabeth nursing homes are doing. If you close one, is it hours to the next closest?
Let’s see-we’ll say we’re thinking of closing, people will move out or not apply- we’ll be able to show a large deficit- and Augusta, with their usual H.U.A. attitude (Head Up—-) will go along with it. And not only that,look at all the money we pocketed by letting it run down. “Martha, pack our bags, we’re off to Aruba with my bonus!”