A downstate corporation with a history of turning around troubled homes for the aged has purchased Mount Loretto Nursing Home in Amsterdam and renamed it the Capstone Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Service.
Upstate Service Group, which manages approximately a dozen nursing homes across New York, bought Mount Loretto March 19 for an undisclosed sum. Efrain Steif operates the corporation, which is based in Rockland County.
The state Department of Health, which licenses and regulates nursing homes, said the former owner of Mount Loretto went into voluntary receivership and selected Steif to take over operations. The Sisters of the Resurrection and the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth operated Mount Loretto.
Michele Harder, admissions coordinator for Capstone, said Upstate Service Group is investing a significant amount of money to improve the Swart Hill Road facility. She said the corporation has begun admitting residents, doubled the staff and added new services.
Harder said Mount Loretto had stopped admitting residents several years ago and that the patient census at the 120-bed facility stood at 50 when it was purchased in March. Capstone now has 86 residents.
As part of its new certificate of need, Capstone has added short-term and long-term rehabilitation services and a 40-bed dementia and Alzheimer’s unit. The unit admitted its 21st resident Wednesday, Harder said.
“We updating everything, including the furniture,” she said.
Upstate Service Group operates rehabilitation and nursing homes in communities including Rome and Syracuse. In 2008, the corporation purchased the former Vivian Teal Howard Nursing Home in Syracuse and renamed it Central Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.
According to published reports, Upstate invested heavily in the facility and made improvements that took it off the federal government’s list of “Special Focus Facilities” — a designation that means the nursing home has consistently failed to comply with health codes and has hurt residents.
Mount Loretto was a Special Focus Facility for several years due to repeated violations of state and federal laws.
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