COLUMBIA, Mo. — One individual remains to be lacking per week after the abrupt closure of St. Louis’ largest nursing dwelling left roughly 170 residents scattered at new services all through town, a state well being division spokeswoman confirmed Friday.
Many sufferers left with nothing however the garments they had been carrying when Northview Village Nursing Home shuttered with out warning final week, creating confusion and spurring outrage amongst residents and their households.
St. Louis police have been alerted in regards to the ultimate resident who stays unaccounted for, Health and Senior Services Department spokesperson Lisa Cox mentioned in a Friday e-mail.
Cox mentioned Northview Village additionally has surrendered its license to function, which can finish the corporate’s contracts with Medicare and Medicaid.
An individual answering the cellphone mentioned employees of Healthcare Accounting Services, which owns Northview Village and a number of other different St. Louis residential properties, are gone for the vacations and declined to supply e-mail addresses for firm leaders.
One of Northview’s homeowners, Mark Suissa, instructed the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the state wasn’t paying sufficient to maintain the power afloat and laid blame on employees, who didn’t obtain paychecks the day the house closed.
“Of course I would have done it a different way,” he mentioned of the closure. “I have other partners also involved. But unfortunately, that’s the way it happened.”
The union representing employees has mentioned the corporate began to shut the house and bus away residents after employees raised considerations about not being paid.
Levare Westbrook instructed the Post-Dispatch that he misplaced observe of his 82-year-old mom, who has dementia, for greater than two days after the house shut down.
“I did a whole lot of cursing until I finally found her,” he mentioned.
Northview Village has been fined 12 occasions for federal violations since March 2021, in line with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Fines totaled over $140,000 and ranged from $2,200 to greater than $45,000. The federal company provides Northview a one-star ranking out of a attainable 5 however doesn’t spell out causes for the fines.
In addition, the state well being division web site lists almost two dozen Northview investigations since 2016. The most up-to-date grievance, from February, mentioned a resident was capable of get out of the constructing via an unsecured door. A 2021 grievance alleged the power failed to research claims that residents left the nursing dwelling and introduced medication into it.
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Researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed from New York.
