LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Long-term care facilities in Kentucky have seen over 2,000 deaths because of COVID-19, as they have been a hot spot for the coronavirus. With that, the pandemic’s burden has also taken a financial toll on these facilities. 

What You Need To Know

  • Friendship Health and Rehab in Oldham County is closing at the end of the month

  • The long-term and short -term care facility cites COVID-19 as the reason for the closure.

  • The facility had 107 residents contract COVID-19 and 20 deaths.

  • They are working with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services to relocate residents

 

“I have never felt so helpless in my life that I cannot help her. I can’t be with her. I can’t go into the facility,” said Robin Tillman about having to move her 81-year-old mother from Friendship Health and Rehab, (FHR) a short-term rehabilitation and long-term care facility located in Pewee Valley in Oldham County. 

Tillman said her mom, who has Alzheimer’s and dementia, was moved to FHR in August 2020 from an assisted living facility after having surgery from a fall, in hopes of rehabilitation. However, Tillman said it was quickly determined she would not recover fully so the family chose to keep the 81-year-old at FHR’s long-term care facility. 

“She was there just barely four months, and then we heard that they were closing. So it’s been really traumatic,” Tillman told Spectrum News 1.

Tillman said she initially heard that FHR was closing on Dec. 29, 2020, from a friend who heard the story on the news. Then, a few days later on Jan. 1, Tillman said she received a letter from FHR that it would close at the end of the month. 

“The letter basically said it blamed it on COVID. It was just too much,” Tillman recollected. 

In 2020, according to data by Kentucky Public Health and Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS), FHR had a total of 107 residents test positive for COVID-19, and there were 20 deaths; 49 staff tested positive with no deaths.

Tillman couldn’t help move her mom because of the pandemic, relying on the new facility in Louisville to do it. She said that was a traumatic experience for her mom due to dementia.

“They [new facility] said we recommend that you not even speak to her on the phone, yet, because it was that traumatic, and she just didn’t understand. So from a daughter’s perspective, it’s terrible. I try not to cry; it’s been really hard,” said Tillman, as she became emotional.

In an email, a spokesperson with CHFS said FHR “is the only nursing home or long-term care facility that has voluntarily closed in Kentucky citing COVID-19 financial issues since the pandemic started.” 

The spokesperson said CHFS does not assist with voluntary closures unless requested by the facility. The spokesperson explained that for a voluntary closure, the facility notifies CHFS of the pending closure and the closure plan. The facility then provides progress reports to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) on the transfer and relocation of the residents. The spokesperson said the OIG monitored FHR last week related to the closure.  

Betsy Johnson is president of the Kentucky Association of Health Care Facilities (KAHCF) and the Kentucky Center for Assisted Living (KCAL), which represents nursing care, personal care homes, and assisted living facilities across Kentucky, with about 280 members (FHR is not a member.). 

Johnson said the pandemic has placed additional costs on these facilities, like purchasing personal protective equipment (PPE) with higher prices due to demand and paying staff higher wages for “hero pay” to incentivize them to not quit amid the pandemic. On top of that, Johnson said facilities like FHR that had a short-term rehabilitation unit lost revenue when elective medical procedures were shut down. That’s because people weren’t having elective surgeries, such as knee replacements, which require rehab. Johnson said there are fewer patient numbers, due to COVID-19 deaths.

“So it was just sort of a perfect storm on top of dealing with the day-to-day additional administrative responsibilities of [COVID-19], reporting, keeping up with the ever-changing guidance coming from both federal and state governments. You know, we were spending more money to protect our residence and then also having less dollars come in the door,” Johnson told Spectrum News 1.

Johnson said she is not seeing a trend in nursing or long-term care facilities closing like FHR is, but she has started to see facility owners sell.

“And then you see some of these larger multi-state corporations decide to exit, and so I’m afraid that that’s going to happen more and more,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the KAHCF/KCAL is looking at state and federal leaders to step-up to help long-term care facilities, and she hopes that will include additional state and federal funding.

Tillman said her mom’s new facility in Louisville has been wonderful, so far, since her mom was moved there on Jan. 5, 2021, but it has been tough to not see her mom throughout the transition. 

“I just want to sit with my mother. I just want to hold her hand, and I just want to be with her, and I can’t. I can’t do it. So it’s one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life, not to be able to be with her,” Tillman said.

Spectrum News 1 reached out to FHR for an interview, but the staff member who replied said all of their time is devoted to the patients as they shut down the facility. The spokesperson with CHFS said the notice to FHR residents and families listed Jan. 29, 2021, as the facility’s closure date. However, the spokesperson also said FHR will remain open until all residents have been relocated.