By the end of the month, Flint Hills Care Center may have a new operating agreement with new management.
A hearing is slated for 11 am Oct. 30 in Shawnee County District Court. Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services Kara Sloan says a tentative agreement is in place for Recover-Care Emporia SNF Realty LLC to own Flint Hills Care Center and Recover-Care Emporia LLC to operate the facility. Sloan also tells KVOE News the agreement may be approved before the Oct. 30 hearing, which is on the docket as a review hearing only if the presiding judge has questions about the arrangement.
The 41-bed senior care facility at 1620 Wheeler has been under state receivership for the last 14 months after former Aging and Disability Services Secretary Tim Keck took that step. The state decided to put Flint Hills into receivership after alleging it owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the state and nearly $60,000 to vendors.
Flint Hills Care Center was one of three facilities under the Pinnacle Management Company umbrella that went into receivership as part of the same state action last year. Court documents indicate investigators were concerned about employees not getting paid and resident trust funds may have been misappropriated.
Reports online through the Aging and Disability Services website, www.kdads.ks.gov, show Flint Hills Care Center had payments denied for new Medicare and Medicaid admissions for part of 2016 after what KDADS said were facility-acquired pressure ulcers among certain residents. Payments were again denied for part of 2017 after alleged threatening behavior from staff towards a resident. That unnamed staffer was later suspended.
Other concerns dating back to 2012 included lack of evidence for lab reports, substandard maintenance and housekeeping services, lack of fall intervention procedures, issues with advance directives paperwork, problems with the facility’s call system, insufficient social service personnel, delayed food service and growth of undetermined substances in different portions of the facility. Former staffers have told KVOE News there was mold in the building in 2016.
Further details about Recover-Care’s plans for Flint Hills Care Center and the transfer of operation agreement have not been announced.
