The abrupt shutdown of Northview Village Nursing Home on Friday came after workers learned they might not be paid and walked out, confusing residents and their relatives. Many family members gathered through the day Saturday outside the facility on the city’s north side. Some didn’t immediately know where their loved ones were taken.
Alvin Cooper of East St. Louis, Illinois, was preparing Monday to fill out a missing person’s report on his 35-year-old son. Alvin Cooper Jr. has lived at Northview Village for several months while recovering from a gunshot wound to the head and a drug addiction.
“They don’t know where he is,” Alvin Cooper said. “I’ve burnt two tanks of gas going back and forth to that nursing home trying to find out what’s going on. I don’t know if he’s somewhere safe or what’s going to happen to him.”
The difficulties started Friday when, according to the union representing workers, more than 130 people went unpaid, and it became unclear if their checks would be forthcoming.
Northview Village has been fined 12 times for federal violations since March 2021, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Fines totaled over $140,000 and ranged from $2,200 to more than $45,000. The federal agency gives Northview a one-star rating out of a possible five, but doesn’t spell out reasons for the fines.
In addition, the state health department website lists nearly two dozen Northview investigations since 2016. The most recent complaint, from February, said a resident was able to get out of the building through an unsecured door. A 2021 complaint alleged the facility failed to investigate allegations that residents left the nursing home and brought drugs into it.
oh yeah, not just boomers - there’s a few of the previous generation left still. my folks (boomers) have a 102 year old neighbor, she was put in a home 10 or 15 years ago, got tired of it after a few months and drove back to her house. she fell down last week, my dad found her on the floor after a day or two, she broke a bunch of bones but didnt want to go to the hospital because “that’s where people go to die”. maybe she’ll make it out, she’s a tough lady.
we’ll see a hell of a population shrinkage here in a decade or two.
Yep. My 81-year-old mother is pre-Boomer. Thankfully, she’s able to live on her own with a housemate. I really don’t want to see her die in a nursing home like my dad. They’re miserable places. There was no choice with him because he had dementia, but I hope she will be able to live whatever is left of her life in the house she loves.