Burlingame Long-Term Care To Close

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors received tears and jeers from the audience as they voted against (BLTC) facility, ending the possibility of a Valentine’s Day miracle—as one resident called it—for patients and nurses at the center.

The Board of Supervisors held a public hearing on the issue Tuesday following the that the County allow the BLTC lease to expire on June 30, 2013 without renewal.

Due to the age and condition of the building, which is nearly 50 years old, County health officials recommended pulling out of Burlingame and opening 32 skilled nursing beds at San Mateo Medical Center, where there are already 32 additional beds. With reductions in state funding, health officials said renewing the lease would amount to an annual loss of more than $9 million.

“The Health Care System did not make the decision easily, quickly or lighting. I know this transition will cause enormous stress and disruption to our residents and our staff members and I am exceedingly sorry,” said Health System Chief Jean Fraser. “I do strongly believe we should let the lease expire.”

Fraser thanked the BLTC staff—200 positions will be eliminated under the recommendation—and promised to make the transition as smooth as possible.

The County has operated the Long Term Care facility since 2003 when the State Department of Health Services placed it in receivership. The 230 patients will be relocated over the next 16 months. Health officials said they would find the best placements as close to home as possible, and also help nurses find new jobs.

The San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury previously recommending closing the facility, located at 1100 Trousdale Drive, in a 2011 report, citing in part the outdated building.

An independent review conducted by Larry Funk, former Chief Operating Officer of Laguna Honda Hospital, found many problems with the facility, such as a failure to meet seismic requirements, insufficient emergency generator power and an inadequate sewage system. He concluded that while medical professionals were providing the best care possible, the limitations of the facility made it clear the lease should not be renewed.

However, residents and nurses rejected the notion that the facility falls below standard. Mike Connors, a spokesman for the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, said the building is in decent shape, and that the County doesn't have the capacity at other care facilities to accommodate all of the long term care patients forced to move.

"We have grave doubts about whether or not there are nearby facilities that could accommodate the residents," Connors said.

Many BLTC residents attended the meeting, expressing again and again that the other patients and nurses were their family, and they urged the Supervisors to look beyond them as numbers and see them as a family at risk of losing each other and their home.

One nurse read a poem written by residents unable to attend, and many patients joined in singing a song written to the tune of “With A Little Help From My Friends” by the Beatles. Even the landowner offered to work with the County reworking the lease, a suggestion earning him a standing ovation.

However, Supervisors agreed that the safety and budgetary issues necessitated the facility’s closure. They expressed that the decision was difficult and not taken lightly.

“We’re in a really, really difficult situation,” said Supervisor Dave Pine, noting that while the County could not afford the $9 million deficit, he understood the obligation of finding each patient appropriate placement. “We can’t continue to do what we’ve done in the past…but we’re not going to abandon any resident.”

A Burlingame Long-Term Care facility nurse, asking not to be named given the sensitivity of the subject, said the public hearing seemed like a façade and doubted the board members carefully considered input from nurses and residents.

“It was very clear out there, their decision was made…not even one would oppose it,” she said. “I am very disappointed in our Board of Supervisors.”

--Bay City News contributed to this report.

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