We learned Thursday in a phone call that Mercy Care Center, one of the finest nursing care facilities in Northern California, is closing its doors. Sally's mother has resided there for some time and was the reason we got the call, the announcement will appear for the general public in next week's papers.
The Care Center is a unit of Mercy Medical Center, the hospital in Mt. Shasta which has been subsidizing the Care Center to the tune of nearly a million dollars each year for the past several years according to Morris Eagleman, Vice President of Patient Care Services whom we met with yesterday for guidance. He explained that it had come down to a choice of closing the Care Center or the hospital itself and there was broad agreement in higher management that the hospital served a wider and more immediate need in the community.
Nonetheless it was a wrenchingly painful decision he said. There are 46 patients in the Care Center each of whom requires round-the-clock professional care unobtainable in a home setting. But the unforgiving realities of our depressed economy had finally reached the point where the facility was unsustainable ___ expenses were outstripping income at the rate of a million dollars a year and it was weakening the hospital next door.
The care center employs around 60 people and their departure will be a severe blow as well and to the entire county because many live and shop in other towns besides Mt. Shasta. Then there will be a major impact on the local businesses which provide services and supplies to the Care Center, jobs may be lost in that area as well. The overall economic impact of this closure is staggering.
But for all concerned the very hardest part of the entire tragedy are the effects of the closure on the 46 patients and this was painfully evident to each of the staff whom we have come to know over the years. There were hugs and tears everywhere when we went there after our visit with Eagleman. None of the patients will be thrown out onto the street Eagleman made quite clear, nor dumped on their families. Rather the facility will strive over the coming months to place them in other care centers.
The unfortunate part however is that nursing homes are closing all over California for the same exact reasons and the task of placing a resident will be a challenge. Since there are so few in this rural end of the state the likelihood is that the patients will end up in urban areas far away from their families and loved ones.
While moving to a new rest home will be hard enough for these residents (Sally's mom is 100 and practically bedridden for example) many depend on family visits to keep up their spirits and reason for living at all. We heard one heart-breaking story where the husband lives on his own but the wife in the Care Center because she has so many medical problems the man was simply physically unable to care for her. But the real twist is that she absolutely will not eat anything unless he is there with her at each meal. Right now he is next door in an apartment but what will happen when his wife is hundreds of miles away?
This entire scenario is sad beyond words and there is little I can do here to fully describe it's impact on people. I encourage you all to write your elected officials and try to head off this closure which will cause so much misery to those least able to defend themselves . . . the 46 elderly patients of Mercy Care Center.
Jim Nielsen, our state assemblyman; 530-223-6300 (Redding office) or email: assemblymember.nielsen@assembly.ca.gov
Sam Aanestad, state senator; 530-225-3142 (Redding office) or email: senator.aanestad@sen.ca.gov
Arnold Schwarzenegger, our governor; 916-445-2841 or email: governor@governor.ca.gov
Wally Herger, our congressional representative; 530-223-5898 (Redding office), no email shown.
Diane Feinstein, our senator in Congress; 202-224-3841 or email senator@feinstein.senate.gov
Barbara Boxer, our other senator in Congress; 202-456-1111 or email webform: boxer.senate.gov/contact (not sure about this)
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