East Providence nursing home on verge of closing, displacing 26 residents

EAST PROVIDENCE — The owners of Elderwood at Riverside have served notice they intend to close the nursing home that, at last count, had 26 residents and 48 staff, by the end of May.

On Monday, the Rhode Island Department of Health disclosed, for the first time, the circumstances that led to a freeze on new admissions, and a "Notice of Immediate Jeopardy" in March.

The residents and their families did not learn of the imminent closing until Friday, however, when they received notification that they had 30 days to relocate.

"We understand that change can be difficult and that this news may be upsetting. I want to assure you ... that we will work to make your transition to a new facility as smooth and comfortable as possible," the nursing home's administrator, Nancy Cicogna, wrote the residents and their families.

Rick Abbruzzese said his 70-year-old mother, Janice Savard, has been at Elderwood for about a year, since having a stroke. He said he knows from his family's past experience that nursing homes have waiting lists, so finding a new place for his mother may not be easy.

"The letter is nice, and hopefully they keep their word and they do provide support to the families. I hope they do," Abbruzzese said Saturday. "The families certainly need it."

But, he added, "I think also the state should step in here and make sure that case workers are assigned to each of the families to make sure they are provided [a] place in a facility that can provide adequate care."

The nursing home's announcement follows two years of unsuccessful efforts by a prospective buyer — Island Health and Rehab LLC — to win the required licensure from the Rhode Island Department of Health.

It was not initially clear what obstacles the company ran into. But a state Health Department spokesman, Joseph Wendelken, told The Journal on Monday: "The potential buyer never submitted a complete application to RIDOH. Despite repeated requests for material from RIDOH, a complete application was never submitted."

He also provided a copy of a March 25 compliance order that spelled out some of the troubled recent history of the home.

Around March 9, it said: "a RIDOH surveyor, along with the local building inspector and State Fire Marshal conducted an investigation ... and learned that the basement floor of the property had been under construction since January 2022, and that the construction contractor was working without permits and that the work performed to date did not meet applicable fire or building codes."

According to the compliance order: "The unpermitted construction was commissioned and approved by the owner of the real property, Rudd Island Holdings LLC, a closely held affiliate of the Facility Manager, Island Health and Rehab LLC."

A notice of violation, and a "Notice of Immediate Jeopardy," was issued over the next 24 hours.

The nursing home "was allowed to remain open only after [an] agreement ... that included closing a significant part of the premises from use."

During its investigation, however, "RIDOH learned that some essential vendors, including waste disposal, utilities, nursing supplies, and medical transportation services, had not been paid on a timely basis, with past due balances well over 90 days."

The compliance order froze admissions to the nursing home. It required the immediate removal of the "facility manager and any of its affiliated entities, including but not limited to Symmetry Healthcare Management."

It also required "evidence that past-due balances of all outstanding essential vendor accounts payable have been satisfied or that a payment agreement has been reached," and that staff was being paid "on a timely basis going forward" and received all back pay due them.

Not all of this was known when the owners of the nursing home notified residents of the nursing home, their families and the media of the looming closing late last week.

A spokesman for Post Acute Partners, the company that owns the Riverside nursing home, told The Journal that Island Health and Rehab has managed the facility since April 2020 under an operations transfer agreement with Elderwood.

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Spokesman Chuck Hayes said the agreement allowed Island Health and Rehab "to continue caring for residents while pursuing appropriate licensure from the Rhode Island Department of Health," which it was unable to do.

"Elderwood, acting out of concern for the best interests of the residents, notified Island Health and Rehab officials and [the state Health Department] in March that it was terminating the operations transfer agreement," Hayes said.

Along with that, he said, "Island Health and Rehab was removed as manager of the facility at the direction of RIDOH."

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At that point, Phil Quillard, chief operating officer of Elderwood, said: “The transfer of clinical operations to Island Health and Rehab [had] languished for some time, and we did not feel we could direct the facility to the high operational standards under which we had maintained prior to the transaction with Island Health and Rehab."

In January, the Health Department had given the nursing home two stars — out of a potential five — for overall quality.

The behind-the-scenes problems surfaced in late March when WJAR TV ran a news story describing the concerns about conditions at the nursing home, raised by two former nurses who said their paychecks had been late multiple times.

"The breaking point for me is that I don't think we're getting full disclosure on what's really going on there," one of the nurses, Cynthia Reynolds, told the TV station. "I just felt like it's an unsafe place for us, for the workers and the residents first, of course, and that we're not actually getting the entire story."

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A company spokesperson told WJAR at that time that: "Island Health & Rehab, LLC was late in meeting its payroll obligation this week. Elderwood is aware that one licensed nurse and two certified nursing assistants have resigned over concerns about payroll. Elderwood is monitoring the situation with Island Health & Rehab to mitigate any further disruption in their staff’s payroll process."

On Friday, Hayes sent out a statement on the imminent closing of the nursing home that said, in part:

"Staff are working with families and residents to find appropriate accommodations and to make transitions to a new home as smooth as possible and staff are invited to apply for open positions at other Elderwood locations."

The State Ombudsman is overseeing the discharges from Elderwood.Our Office is available to any Family or Resident who needs assistance with placement.

Kathleen Heren, the state's long-term care state ombudsman, said her office is available to any resident or family member who needs assistance with placement and gave her office number: (401).785.3340.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: East Providence nursing home on verge of closing, displacing 26 residents