Final 100 residents moving out of Woodland as nursing home nears closure

A state Superior Court judge has given permanent custody to a receiver tasked with keeping afloat the embattled Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center while state partners and advocates work to move out the remaining residents as the facility nears closure.

At the behest of Allen Wilen, the state-appointed receiver and a partner at a business advisory firm, New York and New Jersey officials have transferred more than 230 residents to other care centers since May, when Wilen took over operations. As of June 12, 116 residents remained at the facility, records filed by Wilen show.

Judge Frank DeAngelis, a state Superior Court judge in the Sussex/Morris vicinage, granted Wilen permanent receivership during a court hearing on July 7. A receiver takes over the facility's finances and is tasked with retaining staff while also making sure residents have the proper services they need. Wilen has been working in step with Atlantic Health System and the Department of Human Services, with support from the state Health Department, said Nancy Kearney, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Health.

The formerly named Andover Subacute II, which rose to the national spotlight when 17 bodies were found stacked in a makeshift morgue at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, was once one of the state's largest long-term care facilities, with 543 licensed beds. The care center had 419 residents in April 2020, the same time officials said in a scathing federal inspection report that people inside the facility were at immediate risk of harm or even death.

But despite repeated efforts to reach compliance over two years, the facility's owners, Chaim "Mutty" Scheinbaum and Louis Schwartz — the son of Joseph Schwartz, indicted in a multimillion-dollar tax scheme in January — failed to do so, leaving federal and state officials to take a giant step to protect some of the state's most vulnerable residents.

In May, the New Jersey Department of Health revoked Woodland's license and set a firm Aug. 15 date to complete the transfer of residents to other facilities. The move came on the heels of a decision by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to strip Woodland of its funding for residents admitted after June 25, although payments for those admitted before that date will continue through July 25, Kearney said. The federal division provides roughly 92% of Woodland's funding.

Residents find new homes

The transfer of residents is moving swiftly but mindfully, and given the current pace, it should be completed by the end of the month, said Laurie Brewer, New Jersey's long-term care ombudsman, although she could not say for sure.

"The vast majority of the people who remain are New York residents," she said. "It is my understanding that there is an intensive effort underway by New York Medicaid to find placements for those residents."

The reason New York residents make up the remaining population inside the Mulford Road complex is because most of the New Jersey residents with Medicaid benefits were enrolled in managed health care plans and have care managers working directly with them, their families and the facilities to identity proper placements, Brewer said. And while some New York residents want to stay in New Jersey, others are seeking placement back in their home state.

Brewer said there have been great outcomes, with advocates helping find centers for residents that are closer to their families. Residents, she said, need to have a say about where they are going, regardless of whether they have a guardian or family members who have been actively engaged in their lives.

Most residents were moved to other nursing homes, and a few have gone to medical boarding homes. Staff members within the New Jersey Office of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman, which protects the rights and preserves the health of residents in long-term care facilities, say they have visited residents at their new facilities and nearly all say their needs are being met and they are happier in their new homes, Brewer said.

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It's a dynamic process, and some residents may wish to transfer elsewhere down the road, but Brewer said it's a marked change since the state took over.

"Prior to the installation of the receiver, the previous facility operators were either unable or unwilling to process transfers in a timely way," Brewer said.

Peter Slocum, an attorney who represents Alliance Healthcare Holdings of Lakewood, which operates Woodland, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Court documents have not been filed by Slocum since June. An attorney representing BNJD Mulford Property, which owns the property and leases the building to Alliance, said in a June 20 filing that he did not object to Wilen's permanent appointment as receiver.

The state's attorneys, in their filings leading up to the July 7 court hearing, noted that neither Alliance nor BNJD appeared to contest the permanent appointment of Wilen as receiver, despite having "ample" time to do so.

It was a different story in May, when attorneys for Alliance and BNJD seemed angered by the state's move to file a complaint to take over the besieged facility, saying they had a comprehensive remedial plan in place before the state "ran into court" to seek relief. The state, they argued, knew about the plan and chose to ignore it.

Earlier this month, the judge agreed to remove Scheinbaum and Menachem "Michael" Spiegel, Woodland's administrator, as defendants. Spiegel was an employee and Scheinbaum is the owner of the licensee, so neither should have been individually named in the suit, Alliance's attorney had argued.

Schwartz remains an active co-owner of Woodland on the state Department of Health website, but he had not been named in recent court filings. BNJD said in court documents in May that it had already signed an agreement to remove Schwartz from the facility's license, but it was not immediately clear if the agreement was binding.

The judge ordered Schwartz, Scheinbaum, Spiegel and any others associated with Woodland not to interfere with the work of Wilen and his team as they continue actions to close the facility. Wilen said in a court document on July 12 that he implemented a bonus retention program to ensure staffing levels and Atlantic Health has arranged job fairs for Woodland employees.

As to what will happen with Woodland and the large facility less than a mile from County Road 616, well-known as Newton-Sparta Road, remains a mystery. Officials have declined to comment on the nursing home's future.

But what is known, officials say, is that Woodland's residents will find the right place for them, where they will get the care they need.

"They didn't have a choice about leaving Woodland," Brewer said, "but they need to have some say about where they are going to live next."

Lori Comstock can be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Andover nursing home: Last 100 residents moving out