Largest nursing home in St. Louis closes suddenly, forcing out 170 residents

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/largest-nursing-home-in-st-louis-closes-
suddenly-forcing-out-170-residents/ar-AA1lH3LI

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The largest skilled nursing facility in St. Louis has
closed suddenly, forcing about 170 residents to be bused to other care
centers. Many left with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.

The abrupt shutdown of Northview Village Nursing Home on Friday came after
workers learned they might not be paid and walked out, confusing residents
and their relatives. Many family members gathered through the day Saturday
outside the facility on the city's north side. Some didn't immediately
know where their loved ones were taken.

Alvin Cooper of East St. Louis, Illinois, was preparing Monday to fill out
a missing person’s report on his 35-year-old son. Alvin Cooper Jr. has
lived at Northview Village for several months while recovering from a
gunshot wound to the head and a drug addiction.

“They don’t know where he is,” Alvin Cooper said. “I’ve burnt two tanks of
gas going back and forth to that nursing home trying to find out what’s
going on. I don’t know if he’s somewhere safe or what’s going to happen to
him.”

The difficulties started Friday when, according to the union representing
workers, more than 130 people went unpaid, and it became unclear if their
checks would be forthcoming.

Marvetta Harrison, 59, a certified medical technician, said workers
received emails from the company this weekend promising they’ll be paid,
but it was unclear when.

“This is real wrong,” Harrison said. “I have worked in that building for
37 years. Not only did they mistreat us, they mistreated the residents we
take care of.”

Northview Village has been fined 12 times for federal violations since
March 2021, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Fines totaled over $140,000 and ranged from $2,200 to more than $45,000.
The federal agency gives Northview a one-star rating out of a possible
five, but doesn’t spell out reasons for the fines.

In addition, the state health department website lists nearly two dozen
Northview investigations since 2016. The most recent complaint, from
February, said a resident was able to get out of the building through an
unsecured door. A 2021 complaint alleged the facility failed to
investigate allegations that residents left the nursing home and brought
drugs into it.

Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services spokeswoman Lisa Cox
said the agency was notified around 4:15 p.m. Friday that the nursing home
was closing. The operator implemented an evacuation plan and emergency
medical service workers helped relocate residents to other nursing homes,
Cox said in a statement Monday.

“The final resident left the facility before 6 a.m. Saturday," Cox said.
"Our team continued working through the weekend following up with the
receiving facilities to check in on the residents who had been
transferred.”

Shamell King, an assistant manager at another St. Louis-area nursing home,
Superior Manor, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that some Northview
Village residents arrived without paperwork documenting their medical
histories or medication needs.

Phone calls to Northview Village went unanswered Monday. Calls also were
unanswered at suburban St. Louis-based Healthcare Accounting Services, the
company that owns the nursing home and five others.

On Friday, employees began to question why their bi-weekly paychecks were
late. They found out the payments weren't coming at all, said Marjorie
Moore, executive director of VOYCE, a St. Louis agency that serves as an
ombudsman for long-term care residents and their families.

The shutdown began as employees voiced their concerns, said Lenny Jones,
state director for the Service Employees International Union Healthcare
union, which represents about 100 of the roughly 130 displaced workers.

“They ran out of money to make payroll, caused this massive disruption,
and just quickly moved forward with their goal, which was to shutter this
facility,” Jones said. “You would have to have been planning to move 175
residents in the dead of night.”

Shuttle buses took residents to at least 15 different facilities across
the St. Louis area, Moore said. Many patients departed with nothing but
what they were wearing.

“Closing it down this way is the absolute worst-case scenario for a lot of
us," Moore said. “It all happened so fast.”

Northview Village was the largest skilled nursing facility in St. Louis,
licensed for up to 320 beds. Many residents are on Medicaid and can't get
into other long-term care facilities, Moore said. In addition to elderly
people, the center houses many with behavioral problems, she said.

“It’s a troubled facility, but it’s also been a safety net to keep people
from falling through the cracks,” Moore said.

Cherie Ford, a certified nursing assistant at Northview Village, said she
figured something was wrong on Friday when her direct-deposit paycheck
wasn't in her account. Still, she and her colleagues worked a full day.

“We had no warning, the residents knew nothing either," she said in a
Facebook Messenger interview.

Around 3 p.m. Friday, the staff learned they wouldn't be paid at all, she
said.

“This was the only job I had and am facing eviction and no Christmas for
my family," Ford said. "We were all looking forward to this check. This
was our Christmas check to do our shopping, paying rent and other things.”


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