SOUTH HADLEY — Amid an ongoing crisis in nursing homes and aged care in the state, the change in ownership of Vantage Health and Rehabilitation in South Hadley will allow the senior health care center to shift residents displaced from other care homes. You may be able to accept it.
Just one year after Vantage acquired the facility in February 2022, now known as Pioneer Valley Health and Rehabilitation, the facility, now known as Pioneer Valley Health and Rehabilitation, is located off Route 202. , purchased by Blupoint Healthcare, Newton. The nursing home was known as Wingate, South Hadley.
With the new acquisition, Bluepoint hopes to restore the reputation of the house that was under the Wingate name, said Bonnie Young, director of business development at Pioneer Valley Health.
“We had a good reputation. We served people first instead of filling up the building,” Young said. “We really want the community to regain what it once was.”
The center currently has 132 beds, of which 44 are short-term and 88 long-term. Young said the facility now has 12 open beds.
The change of ownership comes at a time when other nursing homes in the western Massachusetts area face the prospect of closure.
In neighboring Hampden County, four nursing homes owned by Northeast Health Group in Springfield, Westfield and Chicopee are currently scheduled to close. The company claims that state public health department policies set a limit of two beds for him in one room, reducing the occupancy of the home and making it unsustainable financially.
State Rep. Bud Williams, D-Springfield and other politicians in the county are asking the department to suspend the mandate. More than 300 residents will be displaced due to the closure of four facilities, according to a Williams release.
Tracy Carroll, executive director of Lathrop Home, a rest home in Northampton, said the closure was part of a larger crisis occurring within the state’s nursing homes, with continued staff shortages and vacancies. He said it was difficult to find a bed that was comfortable.
“You need a certain head count to make ends meet,” she said. “I don’t know what will happen to these people.”
Young said Pioneer Valley Health plans to be able to accommodate 10 of the displaced people if four homes are closed. She said the facility is working directly with East and West to help relocate some of its residents at the Willimansett Center, her two homes in Chicopee facing closure. I was.
“We will be helping two people a day for the rest of the week,” Young said. “There are referrals that are in the review process to help us try and fill the remaining beds that are open.”
Pioneer Valley Health currently employs 150 people and is looking to hire additional clinical staff. The facility will also create pulmonary and cardiovascular care programs under new owners, according to a release issued Monday.
Alexander MacDougall can be reached at [email protected].
