Trillium Healthcare Group has announced the impending closure of three nursing homes in Nebraska, the Lincoln Journal Star reported this week.
The three facilities — located in Crete, Fremont, and West Point, Neb. — will close sometime in August, after a 60-day window in which Trillium will assist residents with finding alternate accommodations. Around 140 workers across the three facilities will lose their jobs, according to the Journal Star.
Heath Boddy, president and CEO of the Nebraska Health Care Association and designated spokesperson for Trillium, said the Bradenton, Fla.-based company was forced to close the properties amid workforce shortages and low Medicaid rates, which currently fall about $36 per day below the cost of providing care.
“It’s really tough from a business standpoint to do that,” Boddy told the publication.
$23M Skilled Nursing Project Takes Shape
Sandy River Corporation plans to break ground on a 95-bed skilled nursing and memory care facility in Sanford, Maine by this fall, the Journal Tribune of Biddeford, Maine reported.
The facility, to be called Summer Commons, will replace a pair of shuttered memory care facilities — Hillcrest Gardens and Pavilion — and the Newton Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, a 74-bed facility originally built in 1974.
A joint venture of developer Sandy River and North Country Associates, to be called Sanford Senior Care Operations LLC, will run the facility, according to the report; North Country Associates manages 24 facilities in Maine along with a building on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
The 64,000-square-foot facility is slated to open in the third quarter of 2020, the Journal Tribune reported.
“Obviously, this will be a great addition to our community,” Sanford mayor Tom Cote told the publication.
$12M SNF Opens in Nebraska
Elsewhere in the Cornhusker State, the non-profit Community Memorial Health Center opened a new nursing facility with a total construction cost of $12 million in Burwell, Neb.
The 58-bed skilled nursing facility also offers assisted living and memory care services, according to a report in the Grand Island Independent. The 52,000-square-foot property will additionally provide long-term nursing care, adult day services, hospice, and respite care.
The new facility replaces a 40-bed nursing home originally built in 1968, and will employ 92 total workers, the Independent reported. The non-profit group that owns the health center used a $10.2 million direct loan from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of Rural Development, as well as a $2 million private loan backed by the USDA, to pay for the facility.
The Office of Rural Development offers financing to buy or improve a variety of health care facilities — including nursing homes and clinics — in areas with fewer than 20,000 residents. Burwell had a population of 1,210 in the most recent census estimate, according to the publication.