One of Akron’s oldest nursing homes is closing, making dozens of residents find new facilities and forcing nearly 100 employees to find new jobs.
The operator of the 48-year-old Middlebury Manor, 974 E. Market St., blames the shutdown on state cuts to Medicaid.
About 90 percent of the facility’s residents are covered by Medicaid, a program serving the poor. The state slashed the program in its current budget.
Gregory Nicoluzakis, a lawyer with operator Saber Healthcare of Bedford Heights, noted the number of residents declined in recent years.
“It’s increasingly difficult to profitably operate this facility,” he said. “You just can’t operate when there are cuts on top of cuts.”
Middlebury Manor, which opened in 1963 in the old Hower department store building, is scheduled to close in December.
The facility staff and the Area Agency on Aging are helping residents, their families and guardians find new nursing home care.
Sam McCoy, vice president of elder rights at the Area Agency on Aging, said there’s enough room at other area facilities to absorb Middlebury Manor residents. The average occupancy rate of Ohio nursing facilities is about 85 percent, he said.
Nevertheless, McCoy said, moves “are disruptive to those patients. They could end up farther away from their friends and family. They’re taken out of an environment that they’ve come to know.”
About 90 Middlebury residents received the required 90-day notice of closing; it was unclear Thursday how many remained at the facility.
The facility’s 75 to 100 employees, meanwhile, will see their jobs eliminated.
Many of the workers are represented by the Service Employees International Union District 1199. A union representative could not be reached for comment.
McCoy said Middlebury Manor is one of the region’s few skilled nursing facilities to close in years, despite the most recent reduction in Medicaid payments, and earlier cuts, as well as other industry pressures.
“I don’t want to scare anyone,” he said. “This is an unusual occurrence.”
McCoy said he doesn’t envision a significant number of nursing homes shutting down because of the reductions in Medicaid payments. He sees skilled nursing facility operators more often responding to the cuts in other ways, such as selling or consolidating operations, and offering additional services, such as assisted-living programs.
Most at risk
Peter Van Runkle, executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association, said facilities that serve the state’s poorest are most at risk for closing.
He said the budget cuts resulted in Middlebury Manor losing nearly $8 per day for each resident covered by Medicaid. Before the cut, Medicaid paid the facility $171.81 per day for each covered resident. With the cut, beginning July 1, the payment dropped to $164.04 per covered day, or an estimated total of $216,000 a year.
Separate from the Medicaid program, the state gives “satisfaction surveys” to residents of Ohio nursing homes. Middlebury Manor residents gave the facility poor marks for “overall satisfaction” on the 2009 survey — the most recent one available.
However, residents gave high marks in some areas, such as physical and occupational therapy. The state did not post results for the 2010 survey of Middlebury residents because there were too few respondents. Surveys are available at www.ltcohio.org.
The nursing home gained unwanted attention last year when a nurse’s aide was convicted of raping a patient.
Saber Healthcare owns the Middlebury Manor building. Company officials said its future is uncertain.
Middlebury Manor, which is behind Akron Fire Station No. 2, initially was a joint venture of area developer Richard B. Buchholzer and Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland. Buchholzer and Forest City teamed up to build Chapel Hill Mall in the mid-1960s.
Buchholzer’s father, J.J. Buchholzer, operated Hower’s store for years in Akron’s historic Middlebury neighborhood, which in the early 1800s had a population bigger than Cleveland (500).
Akron annexed Middlebury in 1872, and in 1899, the Hower Co. established a department store there.
New business?
While the old neighborhood is losing a business, it might soon gain another across East Market Street from Middlebury Manor.
Joseph R. Scaccio, part-owner of two acres on East Market Street that once housed Sokol’s furniture store, said he hopes to have a deal soon to sell the property.
Scaccio, president of Carmen Construction of Tallmadge, and his brother, John, began demolishing the building in 2008. This week, workers graded the property, after the Scaccios had the remaining portion of the building razed. It was used for storage.
Scaccio said the weak economy made developers shy away from the site. Redevelopment of the Goodyear complex and expansion of Akron City Hospital make the area more attractive, he said.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.