SCRANTON, Pa. — When the week began, nearly 100 people lived at Mountain View Care and Rehabilitation Center in Lackawanna County.
When it ended, the South Scranton facility was declared a danger and its residents had to leave.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced late Friday night it needed to relocate Mountain View’s residents because of the risk to their health and safety. Scranton’s code enforcement office shut the building down.
The facility’s administration and management did not comment on why the building is shuttered. Tom Oleski, the director of the city’s Bureau of Code Enforcement, did not either.
They all referred inquiries to the state Department of Health, whose replies later Saturday afternoon did not clarify what happened.
“All residents from Mountain View Nursing and Rehabilitation were safely relocated to other nearby facilities to receive the ongoing care they need,” said Barry Ciccocioppo, Communications Director. “A listed contact for each resident was notified about their respective family member’s relocation. Effective this morning, the city of Scranton Code Enforcement Office declared the facility “Unsafe for human occupancy or use.”
Clarity would have been appreciated by those who stopped by Saturday to pick up their loved ones' belongings. The silence frustrated them, and rumors flew.
“I’m sure it will come out, but I think everyone has the right to know,” said Melissa Alunni, whose aunt resided in Mountain View. “It’s a pretty emergent situation.”
Mountain View is a for profit nursing home that provides medical care and houses and Alzheimer’s disease unit.
According to the Department of Health, the facility was on a provisional license. A building safety inspection in October noted the sprinkler system didn't work, but a follow up in January didn’t mention the issue.
The facility was also on a list released in 2019 by Sen. Bob Casey and former-Sen. Pat Toomey highlighting the country’s poorly performing nursing homes. Department of Health reports state the facility is changing owners and is under temporary management.
It’s unclear if there’s been another inspection since January. Such reports take weeks to post.
The problem inside evidently wasn’t caused by a fire. Fire Chief John Judge said firefighters called the building on Friday morning, but it turned out to be a false alarm. The Department of Health was already there by the time the crews arrived.
By the end of the day, residents had to leave.
The families who spoke with Newswatch 16 said they were notified around midnight their loved ones were being moved.
Jeff Boam, an Old Forge resident, said he had to make his own inquiries to find out where his father went.
Boam said he lucked out Saturday morning when his friend at an Alzheimer’s nonprofit tracked his father, a dementia patient, down to a facility in Luzerne County.
Boam said, “this could have been handled a lot better.”
“I’m still processing it all but I’m pretty angry,” Boam said.
Now that he knows his father is safe, his attention is turning to why his father had to be moved in the first place.
“Because I have a family member there, I do feel that I deserve an explanation for why this happened,” Boam said. “I understand a lot of people had to be moved last night and that’s a very time taxing ordeal, but it’s very stressful for us as well, the family members, and something needs to be said to us.”
Original story:
Residents at a nursing home center in Scranton are being relocated on Friday due to health and safety risks.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health is relocating around 85 residents from the Mountain View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center due to the risk to resident's health and safety related to the physical environment. The department is making sure residents receive quality care in a safe and secure setting.
Facility staff, with support from the ombudsman of the Department of Aging, is alerting the residents' families of the temporary move.