PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The Presque Isle Rehab and Nursing Center will close at the end of June, its manager confirmed.
A letter went out to its 120 employees and to the families of its 49 residents Thursday morning, said Phil Cyr, president and manager of both Presque Isle and Caribou Rehab and Nursing centers. The Caribou operation will stay open.
The Presque Isle center is the latest in a string of closures around Maine that have left families scrambling for alternative placements for loved ones, and employees searching for new jobs. It will leave empty a facility that has served Aroostook County for 48 years, and leaves a health care hole in a state where 22 percent of the population is 65 and older.
Two major factors prompted the decision: inadequate state funding and lack of qualified staff that started when COVID-19 struck, Cyr said Sunday.
“COVID hit in 2020. We had about a third of our nursing staff resign immediately. We have never been able to recover from the exodus of staff,” Cyr said. “We’re at the point where we need to lose one, or face the reality of having to close both.”
The facility is targeted for closure on June 30, but that depends on whether its residents have all been placed. The home will continue to operate until all patients have successfully found other residences, Cyr said.
Maine nursing homes have faced tough staffing and financial challenges, particularly since the pandemic. Some facilities, like those in Deer Isle, Coopers Mills and Bingham, have closed. Others like Tall Pines in Belfast and the Gardiner Health Care Facility in Houlton have shut down part of their operations.
In the last decade, 23 nursing homes have closed throughout the state. Long-term care leaders in January asked the Maine Legislature for funding so more don’t close.
Two years ago, Maine Veterans Homes in Machias and Caribou were slated for closure, which would have forced many residents to move far from their families. Trustees voted to keep both homes open, but just last week administrators asked the Legislature for more than $3 million funding per year to keep the homes open long-term.
Maine’s Medicaid program, MaineCare, reimburses nursing homes to help pay for residents who can’t afford nursing home care. Those reimbursements aren’t enough to pay staff, according to the Maine Health Care Association. In fact, in 2022, the state’s nursing homes had a shortfall of $96.5 million.
It’s a balancing act between state and federal funding, Cyr said. For every dollar that the state puts up, the federal government will pay $2. The states control that system by designating how much they will pay, and the money Maine provides isn’t sufficient, he said.
“When my father got out of potato farming and into the nursing home business, it was a good deal. We could provide good quality care and make a reasonable profit,” he said. “Now, we are challenged to provide quality care because the state just isn’t willing to pay.”
Like facilities statewide, staffing shortages have plagued the Caribou and Presque Isle homes. Both have operated at only 80 percent of their capacity since the pandemic because of lack of nurses’ aides, but need to operate at 90 percent to break even, Cyr said.
The two homes received between $3 million and $4 million in pandemic relief, a large part of which they turned into hiring incentives. At one point they offered a $20,000 sign-on bonus for nurses’ aides, he said. But many who were hired at that time left because they didn’t like the work or found better pay elsewhere.
Financial losses have been greater than the relief funds, Cyr said.
Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, participated in a press conference last week aimed at securing more nursing home funding.
“I’m heartbroken by the closure of the Presque Isle Rehab and Nursing Center, Jackson said Monday. “I’m heartbroken for the residents who call this facility home, their families who have taken comfort in the quality care the nursing home offers close to home, and the employees who rely on this job to make ends meet.”
The closure of the center underscores an urgent need for action from the Legislature to come up with funding solutions for the state’s oldest and most vulnerable adults, he said.
Jackson challenged legislators to come together to appropriate funding to ensure nursing homes can continue to provide care.
Phil Cyr’s parents, Albert and Anne Cyr, opened Caribou Rehab and Nursing in 1973 and the Presque Isle center in 1976. Before their deaths — Anne in 2017 and Albert in 2021 — they passed the company on to their six children and 11 grandchildren, Cyr said.
He is the only one of the six children who remains in the nursing home business.
His nephew, Doug Cyr, owns and operates assisted living facilities Leisure Village and Leisure Gardens in Presque Isle. Those will not be affected by the rehab center closure.
The 17 heirs made the closure decision together after discussing it for about a month, he said.
Cyr hopes most Presque Isle staff and residents will be absorbed by either Caribou Rehab or Northern Light Continuing Care in Mars Hill. Staff shortages have affected both, so hiring additional staff will enable those centers to care for more residents, Cyr said.
“We will make arrangements to transfer our residents to the nursing home in Caribou or to a facility of their choice,” Cyr wrote in the letter to residents’ families. “As some of the PI Rehab employees switch to working at Caribou Rehab, Caribou Rehab will be able to accommodate a number of PI Rehab residents.”
If all residents have not been safely relocated by June 30, the facility will remain open until all of them have new homes, the letter stated.
Attempts to contact employees at the Presque Isle center were not immediately successful.
Plans are underway to obtain state licensing for five more beds in Caribou, bringing its capacity to 72 people, Cyr said.
“The real killer is the lack of staff, but had we been given adequate funding we could have weathered that storm and possibly stayed around longer,” he said.