Next month, 90 residents will be displaced when a nursing home in Colorado closes.
Grand Oaks Care Center is facing foreclosure because of excessive citations. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will cut off federal funding effective June 7. “It really is a drastic step,” said Mike Fierberg, a CMS spokesperson. “We felt we had no other choice.”
The last standard health inspection by federal regulators at Grand Oaks found 32 health deficiencies. The average number of deficiencies found in inspections at Colorado nursing homes is 11. The nationwide average is 8.
Quality Life Management owner Jay Moskowitz says Grand Oaks just had too many problems to be cleaned up in a short amount of time. Now, his responsibility is to close the facility and relocate its 88 remaining residents. He is also trying to help the center’s 100 or so workers find new jobs.
One nursing assistant said that no problems stood out to her and that Grand Oaks was very similar to other facilities in which she worked. Her sympathies now lie with the residents that have to find new homes. “My God, it’s got to be devastating,” she said. “I mean, it’s hard enough to be put into a facility like this.”