WATERBURY, Conn. — Nursing home residents and workers joined forces Tuesday, holding separate demonstrations with the same message - keep Abbott Terrace Health Center open.
The Waterbury nursing home is on a 30-day countdown to closure after an unprecedented move stripped the facility of its federal funding for not meeting minimum health and safety standards.
Despite state inspections citing the facility for multiple health and safety violations over multiple years, the company that owns the facility, Athena Health Care Systems, says all the issues have been fixed.
The Abbott Terrace nursing home is now preparing to close.
“I’m worried about the staff. I’m worried about the residents and I’m worried about me,” said resident Adrienne Tyelor.
“I’m trying to stay positive and hope that it gets turned around and we don’t close,” added Abbott Terrace nurse Rebecca Zuraitis.
“We work so hard every day. And we love these patients and to just grab that all away so they can go way far away from Waterbury out of town somewhere... That’s not fair,” said Abbott Terrace CNA Barbara Sedlak.
The SEIU union said they’ve collected roughly 3,000 signatures over 72 hours to oppose the closing of Abbott Terrace, which, they say - would result in the loss of 300 caregiver jobs.
“A lot of people can’t advocate for themselves. This staff, they do that for us,” said Tyelor.
The closure would also result in the relocation of 200 seniors.
“I have a lot of close relationships with residents on my floor, and they are literally in tears at the thought of having to leave here,” said Zuraitis.
Despite the plea, state and federal officials have called into question the safety of the facility and the competence of the company running it.
Mairead Painter, the state long term care ombudsman said, “For years, this facility has neglected necessary repairs, failed to update the physical plant and has not provided adequate support for residents or staff.”
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Athena Health Care Systems, the company that runs the facility said, “We have invested significant financial resources in returning our facility to compliance by upgrading floors, doors and other identified facility infrastructure. We believed that the identified issues had been successfully resolved.”
Abbott Terrace has just 23 days left to operate with a closure scheduled for Oct. 8. SEIU says they are engaging elected officials and faith leaders in their efforts.
“We’re quite upset,” SEIU President Rob Baril said. “We are stressed and we are alarmed because we received word that the federal government center for Medicaid and Medicare terminated payments to this facility effective at the end of this month.”
“These people need a place to stay, they don’t want to leave. We don’t want to lose our jobs because here is where we eat, pay our rent and take care of our kids,” Rosa Maldonado, a health care worker at Abbott Terrace, said.
Health care workers at the facility are facing the unimaginable.
“Look, I’m 63 years old, do you really think I want to be out here looking for another job?” Deborah Richards, a health care worker said at the union press conference. “I’m looking forward to retirement, you know what I mean? But at the end of the day, like I said I’m a housekeeper but don’t think I don’t have the same feelings as the rest of them do, because I get attached to the residents just like they do.”
The unprecedented move has residents worried.
“I’m scared to death, I have nowhere to go,” Theresa Sciortino, resident said. “When I came here, I can’t get up and down stairs, I can’t do anything like that so when they said they were going to close this place I was really scared.”
Athena Health Care said renovations at the facility requires approval from DPH.
“In order to complete the flooring renovations, our team at Abbott needed to transfer over 30 residents out of the building to another Athena location while the work was being done. It took time to facilitate the transfers and provide them with their regulatory notification rights.”
With these issues, and others, like a lack of functioning washing machines, and inadequate infrastructure, other state agencies aren’t surprised it has come to this point.
“For years this facility has neglected necessary repairs, failed to update the physical plant, and has not provided adequate support for residents or staff,” Mairade painter, the states long term-care Ombudsman said. “This is not an isolated issue, as we have observed similar concerns at other facilities operated by the same corporation.”
In a joint statement from the public health commissioner and the department of social services, they say, the decision by CMS was not taken lightly and this has to be done because of the repeated failures of Abbott Terrace’s owner and management team.
Residents will still be covered when they move to a facility that participates in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
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Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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