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Mercer panel to evaluate options on nursing home
Commissioners have no clear options about what to do with the former county home.
MERCER, Pa. — County commissioners are evaluating options as they approved yet another bond payment this month for the Woodland Place nonprofit nursing facility.
The $354,912 payment brings to $2,057,106 the total payments the county has had to make because it guaranteed an $8.8 million bond for renovations at the home in 2003. Because of financial difficulties, the nursing home has been unable to make the bond payments.
Commissioners said Thursday they are now worried that Woodland Place will not be able to make the next bond payment due in September.
None of the current commissioners was on the board that guaranteed the bond for the facility. Woodland Place officials purchased the former county nursing home from the county.
Commissioner Kenneth Ammann said all options are being reviewed. Commissioner John Lechner said commissioners are trying to minimize the cost to the taxpayers of bailing out the facility without losing sight of the fact that more than 90 county residents live there.
But there are no clear options to dealing with the financially troubled home. Commissioner Brian Beader commented that if a facility liquidates its assets and still doesn’t have enough to pay its debts, nothing has been achieved.
Commissioners acknowledged they thought it would be better to pay the bond payment this time and let Woodland Place use its money instead to pay outstanding pharmaceutical bills because they will receive a better rate on new medications if they are current.
Keeping current on medication bills was one of the recommendations made in a business plan recently completed for Woodland Place by The Gannon University Small Business Development Center. The plan points out that Woodland Place could save $244,500 this year by freezing employee wages, receiving a pharmaceutical discount by staying current on payments for medications, restructuring debt, and requiring administrative/management employees to take off one day without pay annually.
Many of the recommendations are also made in a comprehensive assessment done of the nursing home in last November by Complete Health Care Resources.
The Complete Health Care Resources report concluded that “the future of Woodland Place is in serious question without influx of funds to pay for a debt burden that has overshot operational reach by more than twofold.” The report said county government is the facility’s “only safety net” and concluded that “even in favorable conditions, it may take several years to pay down debt with county support before the facility may stand solo again.”
Commissioners said they have not reviewed all the data contained in the reports, but once they do, they will meet with Woodland Place’s board. “Our ultimate goal is to get them on good financial footing,” Beader said.