Thursday, November 12, 2009

A nursing home company that wants to reopen a Stock Island facility has asked the state to extend the former owner's license for one year, giving it time to complete the requirements for assuming that license.

Senior Care Group asked the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) for the extension because building repairs will not be complete by the time the license expires in three weeks.

CFO Daniel Charpentier said his company is waiting to hear from AHCA and is dedicated to reopening the facility, which would be called the Key West Health and Rehabilitation Center.

"We have our heart and soul in it," he said this week. "If [the state] doesn't renew the license, we'll have to get legal [direction] on what to do next; we hope that we won't have to, because we're very positive."

If the license lapses, it could be difficult to get a new one, said Lew Fishman, attorney for the Lower Hospital District Board, which owns the property.

Florida officials believe there is a glut of open beds, so the state has a moratorium on certificates of need for nursing home licenses and expires them after one year of non-use.

If the state doesn't see any substantial repairs to the building by Nov. 30, it could deny the license extension, saying Senior Care's effort to reopen the center was not serious enough.

Loan request lagging

The hospital district granted Senior Care's request for a $3 million construction loan, but the company hasn't written a contract to obtain the loan, hospital district President Henry Hamilton said.

"We're still waiting for the paperwork from them on the specifics of the loan from Senior Care Group," Hamilton said Monday. "We told them to write up a draft [contract] for the loan, but we're still waiting."

Fishman said Senior Care could start renovations without the loan, and the hospital district would match only what was spent in repairs and renovations as they were completed, in effect reimbursing Senior Care for the work.

"We're not loaning them the money upfront," Fishman said. "But no documents have been assigned to this effect; we've only tentatively approved the concept of a loan."

Charpentier said the company hasn't started work on the site, but has inspected the property and knows what work needs to be done.

Active building permits

No contractors have requested construction permits, according to the city of Key West Building Department. Building inspector Terry Richardson said he met two weeks ago with a contractor who showed him a 66-page list of work to be done on the building.

"We had a meeting and they talked about replacing the air conditioning units on the roof, repairing the nurse call system -- quite a few items," Richardson said.

The facility has three active building permits the former owners requested in 2008 before the state shut it down. Those permits, good for two years, will expire next year.

Senior Care in October told the hospital district board it planned to replace two 5-ton air conditioning units on the roof; replace joists and rusted framing behind walls with new infrastructure; remove mold and electrical wiring; and do other renovations to bring the building into modern use.

That work has not been done, though 5-gallon buckets of tar for sealing the roof and tools could be seen this week at the foot of an extension ladder leading to the highest roof. The interior of the building remains as it was a year ago.

Consistent failure to pass inspections by Florida's health agency led to the convalescent center's closing, forcing elderly and infirm patients to move to long-term care facilities in Plantation Key, Homestead, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and elsewhere in Florida.

Since then, the hospital district board has fought hard to find a nursing home operator to reopen a quality convalescent center for Lower Keys residents.

jguerra@keysnews.com