ST. LOUIS — A north ºüÀêÊÓƵ nursing home abruptly shut down Friday evening, forcing the relocation of about 170 residents by shuttle bus and leaving more than 100 workers unpaid, union officials said. The last resident was moved before dawn Saturday.
Family members and friends gathered at Northview Village Nursing Home Saturday, trying to find out where their loved ones had been moved after the sudden closure. Volunteers tried to help those searching to locate residents, working from a list of long-term care facilities.
“I just would like to hear my brother’s voice,†said a woman who has been unable to locate her brother, a resident of Northview for five years.
The woman, who didn’t want to give her name out of concern it could lead to trouble for her brother, said she is the only family he has and she has been unable to figure out which nursing home he was taken to. Staff for Northview gave her a phone number to call.
People are also reading…
“I keep calling the number and I’m not getting any response,†she said. “I don’t understand why you would do patients like that.â€
The sudden closure took staff and residents’ families by surprise. And it will leave a major hole in the region’s long-term care ecosystem. Northview was the largest skilled nursing facility in the city, serving many low-income patients from the historic De Paul Hospital building in the Kingsway West neighborhood.
Televisions and radios were still on in rooms, residents’ personal belongings remained and the building was unsecured as former staff went in and out. Some people unaffiliated with the facility were taking carts and other equipment seemingly up for grabs. One former worker was headed in to get his employee of the month picture from 2015.
Workers at the Northview Village Nursing Home, 2415 Kingshighway Boulevard, noticed Friday afternoon that their two-week paychecks didn’t go through and grew concerned.
“I went to talk to the administrator near the end of my shift and she just said there were no funds to pay us,†said Marvetta Harrison, a certified medical technician who’s worked at the nursing home for 37 years.
Harrison said then just before 4 p.m. shuttle buses from several other area nursing homes began to arrive to relocate all residents from the care center in Kingsway West. Harrison said the residents were confused and not getting many answers either.
“Some of those people, we are like their family,†Harrison said. “They don’t have anybody else or any family members.â€
Catina Frost, who was a human resources manager at Northview and worked there 18 years, said there were 169 people on the payroll. She said there was no warning the place would be shuttered and she actually attended a corporate training on Wednesday for a new payroll system.
The center is operated by Healthcare Accounting Services LLC, according to the organization’s website. It’s licensed to have up to 320 patient beds. The company owns several other long-term care facilities, including Grand Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation in ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ Grand Center neighborhood.
The company’s owner, Mahklouf “Mark†Suissa, of Chicago, did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
State regulators learned of the situation Friday and worked through the night to find residents new accommodations, said Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The sudden closure was due to “workforce issues,†she said.
Northview Village has a 1-star rating, out of a possible 5 stars, from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In February, investigators responded to a complaint that a resident had been able to access an elevator, get to the lobby and leave the facility on his own because no one was monitoring the lobby and the front door was left unlocked. Police found him and brought him back.
“It has a lot of problems, but it’s also one of the biggest facilities we have in our area,†said Marjorie Moore, executive director of VOYCE, which serves as the area’s long-term care ombudsman. “That’s the challenge that we have. A lot of these folks need care and don’t really have other places to go.â€
Skilled nursing facilities like Northview are required to give 60 days notice before closing so residents can have a say in choosing their new home, she said.
“Residents have a right to decide where they live,†Moore said. “A lot of these folks have been moved quickly and obviously really without a lot of consent so we want to make sure they’re all in places that they’re happy with.â€
Darrin Mosely was loading up medical equipment and medication carts into a truck Saturday afternoon to take them to Superior Manor of Festus, where he said about 30 residents were transported. Another five or so residents were taken to the company’s sister location, Superior Manor of Downtown, said Mosely, an owner of Superior Manor.
An assistant manager at Superior Manor, Shamell King, said residents were transported to her location without paperwork documenting their medical histories and medication needs. She and other employees of Superior Manor were trying to get nursing charts from patient rooms in Northview and contact residents’ doctors to get medical histories and medication needs.
Harrison, the 37-year employee, said many of the facility’s workers are living paycheck-to-paycheck, so this will mean they may struggle to pay rent or buy gifts for their kids for Christmas.
“We have hustled and bustled in that building for so long and we’ve been through a lot to care for these people with COVID,†she said. “For them to do this to us is disgusting.â€
Harrison said it’s still unclear to the workers if the nursing home will reopen, if the jobs will return or if they’ll ever get their paychecks.
Workers were given a phone number to call about their missed paychecks, but the number just put them on hold. Eventually, the call would just cut out, Harrison said.
Edward Graves, who just started working in maintenance at the building four months ago, said the building needed a lot of repairs. But the closure came out of nowhere, he said. There was even a Christmas party for residents on Friday, he said.
“Are we gonna get paid or are they just gonna play us?†Graves said. “Somebody knows something. This type of thing just doesn’t happen overnight.â€
Eric Harvey, who worked in dietary services at Northview since 2008, said he noticed leaks in the building and other repairs that ownership was slow to fix. Over the summer, the trash bill went unpaid for weeks and refuse piled up outside. He figured the place may close eventually, but he didn’t think it would happen so suddenly. He worries about the residents.
“You start moving a lot of older people and get them out of their comfort zone,†Harvey said, “and their health starts declining.â€
Vanessa Abbitt and Annika Merrilees of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.