Life Care Center Closing

The Life Care Center of San Juan Island at 660 Spring Street – SJ Update photo

<Note: This story has been updated to include a link to a press release at the end of the article>

Residents of the Life Care Center of the San Juan Islands (LCCSJI) received notice that the facility will be closing its doors effective November 30, 2017 due to considerable lack of demand. The facility has capacity for 64 residents, is operating on a budget based on 46 residents, and yet they only have 35 residents living there currently. Director of the center, Janice Fisher said “Even at the budgeted 46 residents, we would still be losing money.”

Two meetings were called on Thursday, September 14, both with the same purpose, to let family members and residents know of the upcoming closure. There were about 15 – 20 family members at the 2:00 meeting, where Janice said “We know this is devastating news for all our families, residents and employees – heartbreaking.” The evening meeting had fewer people, about 8 or 10, and there was a consensus of frustration all around at the short notice being given to relocate.

Several factors have affected the decision to close the center – in 2016 the LCCSJI lost the ability to train and certify CNA’s (Certified Nursing Assistants). It used to be they could hold classes and teach current and new employees to become CNA’s which was very beneficial financially, as all of the care staff must be CNA Certified. Now it is very difficult to find and retain qualified staff.

In the last 10 years, there has been significant change on the island, most notably with the coming of the Village at the Harbour, an assisted living facility, and more recently with the creation of the new hospital, Peace Island Medical Center. Also, there are more “private duty” nursing jobs available and many of these options tend to lure staff away from the Life Care Center.

Being funded primarily by Medicaid is another factor – in recent years funding for Medicaid has been eroding, a program that already paid bare minimums is now paying even less. This is not only a problem for San Juan Island but for Anacortes and other similar facilities in Whatcom, Skagit and Island Counties as well. The further you head down toward Seattle, the better the situation gets, because communities classifed as “cities” fare much better with Medicaid reimbursements.

According to Tresa Mariotto, Social Services Supervisor with DSHS who also serves those counties, “This is a crisis that is happening everywhere and navigating the Medicaid maze is a nightmare. In some cases, to meet the needs of patients, Medicaid only covers about $50-$55 per day. This is for human beings – your loved ones are being covered at about the cost of a tank of gas.”

Our affordable housing crisis figures into the mix as well. With all this lack of funding and reimbursement, it’s just not possible to pay qualified employees enough to afford to live here.

In some ways it’s a bit of a catch-22: There are not enough residents to keep the facility open, but they’ve also had to put a stop to adding new residents due to lack of qualified help.

Todd Fletcher, Vice President of Life Care Centers added, “Even Anacortes doesn’t have enough long-term-care skilled nursing beds available.”

There are no easy answers.

Che Blaine, Director of Social Services at the LCCSJI added, “This is the tip of the iceberg – due to economies of scale, of what’s apparently important and what’s not important [in our culture], just thinking about what’s about to happen with the aging baby boomer population… it’s just really very scary”.

The Life Care Center says they will work with families, residents and state agencies to try to make the relocation of residents go as smoothly as possible.

Link to official press release from Life Care Centers. (PDF)

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