Spectrum Healthcare, the company that owns Ansonia’s Hilltop Health Center, says it has to close the facility because it can’t afford to keep it open.
Spectrum, which filed for bankruptcy protection last September, filed a motion Monday (March 11) asking for a judge’s OK to close down the Hilltop Health Center, a 90-bed “skilled care nursing facility” at 126 Ford St.
The center currently has 84 residents in its care, according to the motion, which is posted at the bottom of this story. It’s unclear when they’ll have to relocate.
A judge scheduled a hearing in the matter for 2 p.m. Thursday at a federal bankruptcy court in Hartford.
Mayor James Della Volpe said Tuesday that he heard about the planned closure Monday and reached out to state Rep. Linda Gentile to see if anything could be done “at the state level” to prevent the shutdown.
“We just found out yesterday, we’re working on it,” Della Volpe said. “We’ll contact the union at some point to see if there’s any help we can give.”
The facility employs “approximately 100 people,” including part-time workers, according to court documents.
“We’re going to do everything we possibly can” to keep the facility open, Della Volpe said.
In the motion Spectrum says a “complete impasse in negotiations” with its landlord, Healthbridge Management, which also operates several nursing facilities in the state, is to blame.
Spectrum says the company approached Healthbridge last November to try renegotiating the terms of its lease for the health center, which “was necessary to the survival” of the home.
The negotiations were going well, according to the motion, until Healthbridge “reversed course” last month and told Spectrum it was not willing to make any concessions.
Continuing to keep the home open would result in it “operating at a severe loss,” Spectrum says in the motion.
In an e‑mail Tuesday, Deborah Chernoff, a spokeswoman for SEIU Healthcare Workers Union Chapter 1199, which represents a little more than half the employees of the facility, said workers there heard the news Monday from a Spectrum human resources official.
Chernoff also blamed the planned closure on Spectrum’s landlord.
Healthbridge also operates several nursing homes in the state, Chernoff pointed out. More than 600 union employees of those facilities have been on strike since last year. Click here for a Hartford Courant story with more on that dispute.
“Essentially, HealthBridge and its affiliated corporate businesses, which are competitors with Spectrum in the for-profit section of long-term care, has made it impossible for Spectrum to reorganize as they had intended,” Chernoff said.
Union officials are “exploring their options,” Chernoff said.
“We’ll have to see what the judge has to say,” Chernoff said Tuesday (March 11) when reached by phone.
She said the planned closure would be “extremely disruptive” to the home’s residents.
“That is their home,” Chernoff said. “It’s not hospital beds. For many people it’s where they expect to live for the rest of their lives.”
Chernoff estimated that if the closure does go forward layoffs would happen sometime in May, while residents of the facility would be forced to relocate.
The Valley Indy left a message seeking comment Tuesday morning at Spectrum’s headquarters in Vernon.
The Valley Indy also sent a message seeking comment to Healthbridge, Spectrum’s landlord.
What Next?
According to Connecticut law, nursing homes must receive permission from the state Department of Social Services before closing — and a public hearing must be held, in addition to other steps.
But as part of its bankruptcy court filing, Spectrum asked a judge to waive that requirement.
Diana Lejardi, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health, said Tuesday that if a nursing home is allowed to close, the DPH supervises the process, “ensuring all necessary notifications are made, no additional residents are received by the facility, all residents are successfully relocated, and health records are properly stored.”
