SouthCoast Nursing Homes to Provide Services under Receivership

NEW BEDFORD — Services at five area nursing homes will continue to be provided for another 60 days as they are being placed into temporary receivership.

WPRI-TV reports that Attorney General Maura Healey's Office has petitioned to place the New Bedford, Fall River, and Dighton nursing homes into temporary receivership in order to protect the more than 200 residents from "imminent danger of death or serious physical injury."

The petition was approved Monday by a Suffolk County Superior Court judge. KCP Advisory Group of Billerica has been named the temporary receiver. While KCP is not responsible for the operation and management of the nursing homes, they will be charged with effectuating "an orderly closure of the facilities.

The receivership will last no more than 60 days, "until such time as the health and safety of the residents of the facilities is no longer a concern.”

The individual nursing homes that are set to close are currently handling the transition of their residents to other facilities.

The nursing homes set to close soon are:

• Bedford Village and Rehabilitation Care (New Bedford)
• Rockdale Care and Rehabilitation Center (New Bedford)
• Bedford Gardens Care and Rehabilitation (New Bedford)
• Dighton Care and Rehabilitation (Dighton)
• Highland Manor Care and Rehabilitation Center (Fall River)

The nursing homes were ordered to stop accepting new patients due to "ongoing operational issues." Skyline Healthcare, a New Jersey-based company, voluntarily surrendered its licenses to operate the five nursing homes.

The petition filed by Healey's office said residents of the nursing homes were being placed at serious risk due to understaffing. Numerous employees have walked away from their jobs after their paychecks were either late or bounced. Some vendors to the nursing homes have stopped delivering supplies because they have not received payments from Skyline.

"At least one facility has been put on notice that its food service vendor will no longer deliver food starting tomorrow (April 30, 2019) due to nonpayment," Healey said in her petition. "Another facility has run out of milk for its residents."

Healey's office says phone services have already been disconnected at two of the nursing homes, and employee benefits including health, dental, and vision care will be terminated if premiums are not paid by April 30.

In order to provide care for residents, Skyline has recently employed workers through staffing agencies, says Healey's office, and the company owes over $180,000 to one of the temp agencies.