Monmouth County completes $32.4M nursing home sale (original) (raw)

FREEHOLD - Monmouth County completed the $32.4 million sale of its nursing homes and turned over the operations of the two facilities to private vendors.

New Jersey Department of Health approved applications on Christmas Eve to transfer Geraldine L. Thompson and John L. Montgomery care centers to new owners. That paved the way to allow Monmouth County to finalize the sales of the facilities in 2015.

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The two nursing homes now have new names with the new owners. Geraldine L. Thompson became Preferred Care at Wall, after Preferred Care Holdings LLC of Ewing purchased the 135-bed facility for $15 million.

Preferred Care will be implementing new clinical protocol at the center, said Stacy Lopez, clinical liaison and director of marketing for Preferred Care at Wall. Among the new offerings are orthopedic, cardiac and pulmonary programs aimed at preventing patients from being re-hospitalized after illness or injury.

Preferred care will also start operating the new subacute unit — shorter term rehabilitation — within the next week, Lopez said. The subacute unit had been in the works when Monmouth County decided to sell the nursing home. Renovations are underway to other parts of the center.

Monmouth County moves ahead to sell nursing homes

The John L. Montgomery facility is now Allaire Rehab and Nursing. Allaire Healthcare Group LLC of Lakewood paid $17.4 million for the 174-bed nursing home, which also has a 24-bed, specialized young adult unit.

5 things to know: Monmouth nursing home sale moves ahead

Monmouth County decided to sell the two centers in March after facing several years of operating deficits largely caused by declining Medicaid reimbursement rates. The centers lost $6.7 million in 2014.

County officials said 95 percent of the former county employees who were interviewed were offered positions with the new owners, but an exact number was not available. A condition of the sale required the new owners to offer an interview to all employees who wanted one.

Monmouth County hired 35 nursing home employees for other positions in the county. Another 56 employees retired by the end of 2015.