Citing Losses, Large Nursing Home Plans 62-Bed Cut

Citing continuing losses, directors of one of Orange County’s largest nursing homes have decided that they will stop using 62 of their 202 beds by April.

That move by Western Medical Center-Bartlett in Santa Ana will make it more difficult for Medi-Cal patients to find a nursing home in the county, and some patients may have to be placed in other counties or states, experts on nursing care said.

“There is a potential problem,” said Jacqueline Lincer, district administrator for the state health services’ licensing division. While nonprofit Bartlett had regularly accepted Medi-Cal patients, many of Orange County’s 65 nursing homes have turned them away, Lincer said.

‘Down-Sizing’

But once Bartlett’s “down-sizing” occurs, “there will be some people that we won’t admit,” said Tim Carda, the home’s executive director.

Carda added that he did not believe any patients would be asked to leave the 10-year-old nursing home, explaining that as patients die or are moved to another facility, their beds would not be filled.

The cutbacks probably will not force any layoffs among the nursing home’s 400 employees, he said.

Officials at one hospital that often refers patients to Bartlett expressed concern over the decision.

The cutback will make it more difficult to place Medi-Cal patients and those with chronic illnesses, according to Dennis Gaschen, a spokesman for St. Joseph Hospital in Orange. “We think any kind of closing of extended-care beds is going to have a domino effect--with more patients and less beds,” Gaschen said.

Carda said the nursing home lost more than $3 million last year, and its board of directors hope that a smaller patient load will cut losses to under $1 million a year.

A key factor in Bartlett’s financial problems is California’s low reimbursement rate for Medi-Cal patients, Carda said. The nursing home receives a daily fee of $51.65 per patient, but the per-patient costs are as high as $130 a day.

Says Costs Are Higher

“We are getting reimbursed at the same rate as a facility that takes a less acute patient, but our costs are much higher when you have a patient on a mechanical ventilator (breathing apparatus), when you have a patient who requires complete care,” Carda said.

On Wednesday night, Bartlett officials invited business leaders and politicians to a community meeting at the Santa Ana facility to explain the home’s financial problems and seek donations for a newly established Bartlett Community Fund. The fund will be used to expand patient activities and to buy more ventilators and suction machines, Carda said.