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LAUREL –The healthcare company looking into purchasing the embattled Hillcrest Care Center has a troubling record when it comes to quality of care violations.
Representatives from Accura Healthcare, based in West Des Moines, Iowa, toured the facility and spoke with staff Thursday.
“I don’t think the owners knew they were going to meet with us that day,” said Laura Showen, a registered nurse at Hillcrest who works on an as-needed basis.
Showen also believes Accura representatives had no intention of meeting with family members and residents as a City of Laurel press release indicated last week, she said.
Hillcrest staff members - many who are against corporate ownership - held a public meeting Monday night.
“My goal is to let the community know that we still care about the residents,” Showen said. “We’re still fighting for the residents and what’s best for them. We will encourage the community to do the same and fight for the elderly ... to have a safe home.”
Showen said she has concerns about Accura’s reputation.
“I was surprised the council was considering that company. It didn’t take much to find some pretty appalling articles,” Showen said.
The company’s web page touts their Shenandoah, Iowa, facility being named the best nursing home in Southwest Iowa for multiple years. They also celebrate some of their facilities being deficient-free on state surveys, and 11 receiving the 2024 Bronze Commitment to Quality Award by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living.
Online documents from government agencies, however, point to some findings that include an abuse investigation at the same Shenandoah, Iowa, facility in which a resident was bruised from a staff member in 2023, according to the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing (DIAL).
Another DIAL report details a resident who choked to death last month at an Accura location in Lake City, Iowa. That facility was also fined by the state for a rodent infestation, insufficient staff and employing a non-certified nurse aid.
Accura also agreed to pay $60,000 last fall for employing an excluded individual at one of their facilities, as found by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG). The OIG investigation revealed a nurse - previously excluded from participating in federal healthcare, provided items or services billed to federal healthcare programs.
According to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Accura chain has been ordered to pay more than $1.1 million in fines for quality-of-care violations, and regulators have suspended Medicaid payments to Accura facilities at least 11 times.
“This company appears to be the bottom of the barrel,” said Wendy Krei, a registered nurse at Hillcrest, when asked her opinion of Accura.
City Administrator Dan Kuhlman did not respond to the Laurel Advocate seeking comment about Accura’s reputation.
Kuhlman announced Accura had shown interest in purchasing Hillcrest which prompted the tours last week.
But the company is expanding into the northeast Nebraska area regardless of what happens at Hillcrest.
Last month, Arbor Care Centers announced it would transition ownership of some of its nursing homes and assisted living facilities to Accura, including the facility in Hartington.
Other impacted locations include Neligh, O’Neill, Franklin, Fullerton and Tekamah.
Currently, Accura owns facilities in 30 communities in the Midwest. Nursing homes in Pierce, North Platte and Kenesaw, in Nebraska are already under Accura ownership. The company is in the process of closing a facility in Butte.
Krei said her fear is that like Butte, once Accura takes over Hillcrest, they will start the process of shutting it down and referring residents to its nursing homes in Pierce and Hartington.
Publicly, Laurel city officials have minimized Hillcrest Care Center’s financial woes while at the same time an impassioned nursing home staff organizes public meetings and petitions in an effort to save the nursing home from closing.
On Jan. 24, the Laurel city council unanimously approved a new $180,000 line of credit from Security Bank, Laurel, for one year, so that Hillcrest Care Center could cover payroll.
The bills continue to go unpaid despite an increasing line of credit to its current $500,000.
Meanwhile, Megan Wieck, as the facility administrator, decides which vendors get paid. As a result of non-payment, many vendors have stopped doing business with the facility including staffing agencies and supply companies, staff said.
Community members have said they would help the center financially if the facility administrator was removed. More than 200 signatures were collected to do just that and re-instate a nursing home advisory board.
Wieck was hired in 2022 at an annual salary of $65,000. Currently, she makes $120,000 annually. She previously worked at Elms Health Care Center in Ponca. That facility closed Nov. 17, 2023.
Currently, there are about 16 residents receiving care at the 36-bed skilled nursing facility, Krei said.
Staff said they brought their concerns of financial instability and administrative mismanagement to light about two years ago to the seven-member nursing home advisory board. In 2024, after the board started questioning the facility administrator, the council and mayor, the nursing home board was dissolved. In its place, the mayor and city council were tasked with overseeing the center’s operations, governance and administration.
