New Beginnings facilities
Limestone, Tenn. - John Reed Healthcare and RehabLonoke, Ark. - Red Oak Nursing and RehabilitationAbbeville, Ga. - Abbeville Healthcare & RehabEastman, Ga. - Eastman Healthcare & RehabJeffersonville, Ga. - Jeffersonville Health & RehabMacon, Ga. - Goodwill Health and RehabMidway, Ga. - Woodlands Health CareTybee Island. Ga. - OceansideTybee Island. Ga. - Savannah Beach Nursing & Rehab CenterWhigham, Ga. - Pinewood Nursing CenterWarren, Oh. - Cedarcreek Health CareYoungstown, Oh. - Campus Health CareOklahoma City, Ok. - Edwards Redeemer
New Beginnings Care, a Hixson-based business that operated nursing homes in five states, has declared bankruptcy after government regulators cited patient neglect and cut off federal payments at some of the company's facilities.
State and federal investigators found conditions were bad enough to shut down nursing homes it ran in Ohio and Georgia and remove all the Medicare and Medicaid patients from a nursing home in eastern Tennessee.
"They've left a lot of people in bad situations: patients, staff and owners of the facilities," said Jim Wheeler, the attorney who represents the nonprofit board that owns the John M. Reed Nursing Home in Limestone, Tenn., near Johnson City.
Debbie Jones, CEO at New Beginnings Care, declined to comment Monday. The company filed a Chapter 11 petition to reorganize its finances under bankruptcy court protection in Chattanooga.
The John M. Reed Nursing Home, which was founded 52 years ago by the Church of the Brethren, hired New Beginnings in April 2013 to manage the nursing home. Two and half years later, the nursing home lost 40 of its 43 patients after a state survey in December, 2015 found numerous deficiencies. Regulators said the staff managed by New Beginnings failed to ensure timely patient incontinence care, didn't prevent avoidable pressure ulcers, and failed to administer antibiotics as ordered by the physician.
Last Friday, regulators also shut down Campus Health and Rehab, a nursing home that New Beginnings ran in Liberty, Ohio, near Youngstown. The nursing home made a Jan. 21 federal list of the "worst of the worst" nursing homes, and inspectors in late January found signs of neglect, including patients' whose adult diapers were saturated with urine and feces. A report said the facility was understaffed because nurses and administrators had quit since they weren't getting paid.
In a court filing entered Monday, New Beginnings' Chattanooga-based attorney, David Fulton, sought to prevent Medicare/Medicaid patients being removed from a nursing home that New Beginnings Care runs in Jeffersonville, Ga., southeast of Macon.
"Residents are not in danger for their health and safety," the filing reads. Fulton said the facility will close if the federal payments stop and "all of the approximately [115] employees would lose their jobs."
An emergency hearing is set for 1 p.m. next Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chattanooga.
Meanwhile, in Limestone, Tenn., the board of the John M. Reed Nursing Home is running the facility again, with help from an outside administrator. The board is likely to sue New Beginnings Care for damages, its attorney said.
"It is highly likely there will be some litigation over what happened here," Wheeler said.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or twitter.com/meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.