Good Samaritan Society-St.Croix Valley nursing home in St.Croix Falls has been sold to Plainview Health Partners. This has blind-sided everyone at our facility, including residents, their families and our staff. No one saw this coming and some of my colleagues have expressed great anger and feel we have been lied to for the last couple of years. The official transfer date is December 1st, 2018.
For me, it’s a business decision on the part of the buyers, who are taking on just the nursing home operation. The home care, The Lodge assisted living facility in Taylors Falls, and the management of the two HUD apartment complexes in St.Croix Falls will stay with the Good Samaritan Society. It seems apparent that the Society will be keeping the entities that are making money.
Nursing homes may be in a trough for awhile until the baby boomers age sufficiently to need skilled nursing care. That’s about 8 years from now, according to some estimates. Meanwhile, we have tough competition from the nursing home/assisted living in Luck and the home in Osceola, as well as an assisted living unit in Osceola with another one planned and about to be constructed there. There’s also assisted living in Centuria. The question, then, is, how do the new owners intend to turn a profit? There’s not much to cut in our nursing home without endangering our residents.
Another issue for the buyers is the faith issue. Many or our residents are with us because Good Sam is a community of faith. That goes for many of our staff, too. Our buyers need to look at WHO they are buying, not just What they are buying. A lost employee goes directly to the bottom line. It would be a good business decision to allow our present faith climate to continue as is.
I trust the Lord to take care of me and I pray for our staff, residents and their families as we navigate this change.