Earlier this month, the Malden City Council voted unanimously to send legislators a home-rule-petition to make McFadden Memorial Manor, an aging city-run nursing home in Malden, MA, a geriatric authority not run by the city. If passed, McFadden Memorial Manor would no longer be managed by the city, under which the 61-bed facility has been losing about $500,000 annually for some time. The estimated forty McFadden residents have continuously called for improvements to the home – as it was built back in the 1880’s and needs more than one-million dollars in capital improvements.Â
Charles Toomajian, special assistant to the mayor said, “Rather than close the place down, we are looking for alternatives for how to keep the place up and functioning,” Toomajian said. “A geriatric authority would go ahead and allow an independent body to run the facility, and it would be out of the city’s hands. . . . This seems to be the most viable option to maintain it as the facility it is today.”
Valerie Folk Melanson, a Friends of McFadden organizer whose brother lives at the nursing home, said residents and supporters are “cautiously optimistic” about the change. She said many had wanted McFadden to remain under the city’s province, but a geriatric authority was the next best outcome and better than being taken over by a private company that might not uphold the high level of care McFadden has been known to provide.
“It’s not a done deal, obviously, but at least we are still moving forward and the doors are still open,” she said.
Board members already have been chosen to run the geriatric authority. One of the board’s first tasks would be to figure out what improvements McFadden needs. The home, which has shared rooms and no private bathrooms, has long been unable to properly compete with more modern facilities and the large range of services they provide.
In order for the legislation to pass, it must make it through the House, Senate and needs the governor’s signature.
For more information click here.Â