Holiday House Will Close : Handicapped to Lose Westminster Home

A home for developmentally disabled patients in Westminster will close next week because it failed to meet state guidelines to continue receiving Medi-Cal funds, the facility’s administrator said Friday.

Boudewijn (Bo) Mulder, director of Holiday House, also said arrangements were being made to find new homes for the facility’s 83 adult patients by next Friday, when the home will cease operations.

“We just do not have the time or money to stay open,” Mulder said.

Holiday House has been under investigation by the state Department of Social Services for the past two months. On Wednesday, the state agency issued a 39-page report detailing problems at the facility.

Medi-Cal Funds Lost

The state had threatened to close Holiday House if the necessary improvements were not made. But Mulder said the loss of the Medi-Cal funds made it impossible to continue caring for the patients. The facility has operated in the 7500 block of Wyoming Street since 1984, he said.

“We have been working on this for quite a while, and we have made significant improvement. But the state does not think it is enough,” Mulder said.

A spokesman for the state Department of Social Services in Sacramento was unavailable for comment Friday.

However, the program director for the Orange County Developmental Disabilities Center (DDC), which contracts with the state to place and care for disabled patients, said the state’s 2-month-old investigation centered on administrative deficiencies by Holiday House and not on any abuse of patients.

“The state is exercising its proper legitimate concern. But there (are no allegations of) client abuse at all,” Don Sizemore said.

Both Mulder and Sizemore said that the state found deficiencies in the manner medical records were kept by administrators of Holiday House, by doctors’ orders for patients and other health care issues.

Low Staffing

The report that Holiday House received from the state Department of Social Services also questioned the low staff-to-patient ratio at the facility.

Sizemore added that the DDC already has begun working “on a detailed plan” to relocate the patients at other facilities for the developmentally disabled.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) said Friday that his office had tried to help Holiday House comply with state guidelines to continue operating.

“I’m very sorry to hear that they are closing. But if it is a question between inadequate health care versus moving the patients, then I would have to side with the Department of Social Services,” Seymour said.