5 responses to “County Considering Closing Care Facility”

1. Ron Fulderon

   February 12, 2012

   Gotta keep paying those pensions.

2. pat giorni

   February 13, 2012

   After teeheeing, you might want to read the supporting report and keep in mind that no matter how damning the case made for closure, this County is on the tip of a crisis that will affect a major part of our population.
   Also keep in mind that once an individual’s assets are spent down, which happens rapidly if long term care lasts generally more than a couple of years, there will be great competition for Medi-Cal beds. Where will your parents, or even you go?
   http://sanmateo.siretechnologies.com/sirepub/cache/2/0kyzp2ar3rv3412ckqvxli45/164802132012083326836.PDF

3. pat giorni

   February 13, 2012

   If the above link is not working go to http://www.co.sanmateo.ca.us/portal/site/SMC and click Board of Supervisors; click Board Agenda; then click Feb 14 Special meeting. The report is available in the window that will pop up on right side of page—click on the file icon.

4. Joe

   March 5, 2012

   I missed posting the results after the vote. Here’s part of the Times’ article from Feb 16th.
   Over tearful pleas and angry protests from staff and residents of San Mateo County’s public long-term nursing facility, the board of supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to shutter the center.
   The 5-0 vote to not renew the county’s lease with the owners of the Burlingame Long Term Care Facility on Trousdale Drive means laying off as many as 200 workers and moving about 230 disabled, elderly or chronically ill residents. The drawdown of workers and patients — most of whom are low-income Medi-Cal recipients — will happen during the next 16 months, officials said in the meeting at the Westin Hotel in Millbrae.
   “This place is one big heart,” said five-year resident Esther Nord, 63, of the center. “Give us our miracle on Valentine’s Day.”
   She was one of more than 55 supporters who spoke during over two hours of public comment that included songs and a poem.
   But supervisors stuck by a recommendation from health system Chief Jean Fraser and San Mateo Medical Center CEO Susan Ehrlich to close the rundown facility, which was built in the 1960s and 1970s.
   Fraser said the building, which the county took over in 2003, doesn’t meet safety or disability access standards. She pointed to narrow stairwells that make it dangerous to evacuate residents who are confined to beds or use wheelchairs in case of an emergency. She noted, also, that state budget cuts mean a $9 million deficit for the facility’s roughly $32 million annual operating budget.
   Fraser apologized, but said health care is moving away from large institutions and toward keeping people, with services, in their homes as they age. San Mateo is one of five counties in California that operates a long-term nursing center, she said.
   But center supporters warned the officials they were axing a major resource at a time when a “silver tsunami” of baby boomers is creeping toward old age.
   County officials said they will not close the facility until every patient has been placed in a new home. Those moves and severance payments to laid-off workers are expected to cost the county about $9 million.

5. Joe

   June 16, 2012

   There’s an update from the DJ
   http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=236352&title=Deal in place to save Burlingame Long-Term Care
   Rather than close its long-term nursing home in Burlingame as a cost-savings measure and transferring residents elsewhere, the county is looking at keeping the doors open another three years while a health care company manages the facility on its license.
   If all goes as planned, 163 residents still at the facility can stay, those who’ve already left have an option of returning, all will eventually be housed in a renovated building and at least two-thirds of the employees will keep their jobs. The agreement will cost approximately $1 million to $3 million less than closing the care home.
   “This couldn’t have happened any sooner,” said Nadia Bledsoe, an agent with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 829, which represents a majority of the staff. “Not only is it going to increase the number of skilled nursing beds, it saves jobs for people who would have been unemployed.”
   The plan is contingent on Vincent and Mario Muzzi, owners of the Trousdale Drive building that houses Burlingame Long-Term Care, completing sale of it to Brius, LLC. San Mateo County would then extend its lease until Sept. 30, 2015 and allow Brius to manage BLTC on behalf of the San Mateo Medical Center for three and a half years while the company transitions to being a freestanding nursing facility on Oct. 1, 2015.
   In return, Brius will keep whatever profit or loss it makes on operations. Brius will receive a higher Medi-Cal reimbursement rate affiliated with the medical center than on its own — one reason the San Mateo County Health System said other operators were not willing to take over the facility and its patients as a freestanding operation.