COLUMBUS, Ohio _ A Westerville, Ohio, nursing home lost its federal government funding Tuesday after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services determined it hadn't done enough to reverse a pattern of poor patient care.
Uptown Westerville Healthcare, at 140 Old County Line Road, will need to relocate all of its residents who rely on Medicare and Medicaid by June 20.
A team of state agencies will assist to make sure residents find a new nursing home or another place to live that meets their needs, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
The facility also is barred from accepting new Medicare and Medicaid-dependent residents.
Chastity Allison, vice president of business development for Hillstone Healthcare, which owns Uptown Westerville, said attempts were made to return the nursing home to federal compliance by Tuesday's deadline, but declined to offer specifics.
Allison said the facility is working with the state to make sure residents have "a safe placement" within 30 days.
Uptown Westerville's history of poor patient care includes instances of problematic weight loss, including one resident who lost 33 pounds over 31 days in the fall, and residents who say they weren't bathed in weeks.
The nursing home was notified that it could lose its federal payments in December.
In a six-month period between November and May, 12 complaints against Uptown Westerville were found by the Ohio Department of Health when it conducted inspections on behalf of CMS.
As of May 8, Uptown Westerville had 109 residents, 86 of whom relied on payments from Medicare and Medicaid.
Uptown Westerville was bought by Hillstone Healthcare from HCR ManorCare in December. Its administrator is Matthew Dapore.
Hillstone operates 39 nursing homes in Ohio, according to BusinessWire.com. Its other central Ohio facilities include Columbus Colony Elder Care in Westerville and Isabelle Ridgway Post Acute Care Campus on the Near East Side.
CMS, which oversees long-term care facilities in the United States, maintains a list of "Special Focus Facilities," which receive additional oversight after exhibiting a history of problematic care.
Each state can only have five nursing homes on the list at a time. In the most recent list, three of Ohio's five facilities _ Uptown Westerville, Isabelle Ridgway and Fairlawn Rehab and Nursing Center near Akron _ were operated by Hillstone.
