Indiana Nursing Home Ordered To Close
An Indiana nursing home faces closure Monday after an Administrative Law Judge confirmed the legality of the State of Indiana's decision to relocate residents and deny the facility a permanent operating license. The facility, Northlake Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Merrillville, Indiana, had been working under a probationary operating license and had been issued three probationary operating licenses - the maximum under Indiana law. The closure will affect approximately 13 residents remaining in the 150 bed facility.
Owner Eric Rothner, who owns at least 24 nursing home facilities in four states, contested the recent ruling and is currently seeking a judicial hearing in Superior Court in Indianapolis and an order halting the closure. According to Rothner, "If the state is out to get you, Jesus Christ could be your administrator and the Mother Mary your director of nursing and you're still dead."
According to the "Nursing Home Compare" section on the U.S. Department of Health and Senior Services' site and the Indiana State Department of Health's "Nursing Home Report Cards", some of Rothner's facilities are among the lowest ranking in the state after being cited for poor quality of care and patient safety violations. According to one resident at Northlake, "...I have no choice in the matter. If I did, I wouldn't be leaving. The guys that own this place didn't want to fix it up and just kept raking in the dough."
Rothner's Indiana facilities are not his only facilities currently under scrutiny. The Illinois Department of Public Health announced recently that it would remove the last residents from Rothner's Somerset Place by March 12, 2010. That facility was ordered to close on that date after the facility received repeated citations for patient abuse, violence, and poor quality of care. You can read more about that closing here.
