Patients have already been assisted in finding new accommodations, including those who will be transferred to Twin Pines, also owned by the partnership. “Most of our employees will go over there to Twin Pines,” which Cunningham said would minimize layoffs out of the 30-member staff.For now, facility owners are working with the state, “crossing all our t’s and dotting our i’s” related to the closure. But that might not be the end: “We have plans for it,” and Cunningham said there could be a new use for Santa Paula Healthcare, as interest has been expressed in converting it to an assisted living center or Alzheimer’s facility.The closure of Santa Paula Healthcare was “a surprise,” according to Sally Phelps, whose husband Bob lived at the facility. “It was slow for the census, I noticed that. But they were such wonderful loving staff and management, just terrific. I’m sorry that it happened.”Phelps said she is hoping a place for Bob - a noted aviator, and the President Emeritus of the Aviation Museum of Santa Paula - will be found at Twin Pines. “It’s so much easier,” she noted, for visits.Overall, the closure of Santa Paula Healthcare is “sad... 43 years. They’re doing the best they can for everybody, the employees and patients. We’ll miss that building,” said Phelps. “It gets to be like home.”
Santa Paula Healthcare to close after 43 years, finances blamed
March 18, 2009
Santa Paula News
Santa Paula Healthcare notified patients last week that the care facility that has operated on West Main Street for more than four decades would be shut down within 30 days.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesSanta Paula Healthcare notified patients last week that the care facility that has operated on West Main Street for more than four decades would be shut down within 30 days. Approximately 14 patients remain at the facility, which had plans to convert the business model to short-term rehabilitation.Some of the patients and employees of the 49-bed facility, located at 220 W. Main St., will be transferred to Twin Pines Healthcare, a 99-bed facility owned by the same partners.The nursing home is closing for financial reasons, according to partner Reece Cunningham, who noted, “It breaks my heart... that’s where I came out to in 1992” from St. Louis to join the company. “The bottom line is the facility is not making any money,” and Cunningham said the partners can no longer “be carrying it” through the tough times.State delays in payments, numerous nursing home beds in the Santa Clara River Valley area and trouble attracting patients with resources other than the government’s low-paying Medi-Cal insurance were partly to blame for the closure, but Cunningham said the choice of assisted living centers or at-home care by many seniors also had an impact. “We fought with it and fought with it, changed our patient mix” and stopped accepting new Medi-Cal patients, but “we could not just build the census.”
