Editor's note: This story was filed hours before Highland Manor's corporate owner, Skyline Healthcare, said it would close the Fall River facility and four others in New Bedford and Dighton. Click here to read the full story on the company's plan to close its local nursing homes amid an internal financial crisis.
FALL RIVER — Highland Manor Nursing Home is functioning well and maintaining its staff despite the troubles of its parent company, according to officials with Bristol Elder Care Services.
Other facilities owned by the parent company of Highland Manor are not faring so well, officials say.
At one of those, Bedford Gardens in New Bedford, paychecks are bouncing and bills are going unpaid, leading nurses' aides to leave in such numbers that the facility was forced to close the third floor and move patients downstairs, director Steven Haase told The Standard-Times this week.
“Highland Manor is fully staffed,” said Margaret Pilkington, the long-term care ombudsman for Bristol Elder Care Services. “I’m in there almost every day checking. Residents are getting the care they need. We are monitoring it closely.”
Sandpiper Health Care owns five nursing homes locally, including Highland Manor, 761 Highland Ave.
The Dighton Care and Rehabilitation Center in Dighton is also part of that group. It, too, is being monitored and has been found to be functioning properly, Pilkington said.
Sandpiper Health Care is based in New Bedford. The company operates three nursing homes in New Bedford as well as Dighton Care and Highland Manor.
It is a subsidiary of Skyline Healthcare, which also has nursing homes in Kansas and Nebraska. That company has also experienced problems meeting payroll there, according to published reports.
Nancy Lordan is listed as the regional manager of Sandpiper Health as well as the president of Highland Manor. She did not return calls made Wednesday.
In repeated calls to Highland Manor, a recorded message was played, announcing that the number was out of service. A subsequent call Wednesday afternoon was answered by a man who hung up when told the caller was a reporter.
The state Department of Public Health is also involved, Pilkington said.
“The DPH is monitoring this closely,” she said. “We are in contact with them.”
So far, the problems at the New Bedford facilities have not surfaced in Highland Manor, Pilkington said.
“They haven’t suffered staffing issues,” she said. “Their bills are being paid.”
Email Kevin P. O’Connor at koconnor@heraldnews.com.