Missouri DHSS staff worked through night to find care for 170 residents displaced from St. Louis nursing home

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services says staff worked through the night to relocate and find care for 170 people forced out of a St. Louis nursing home which abruptly closed Friday, leaving staff unpaid.

DHSS Spokesperson Lisa Cox told First Alert 4 state officials became aware of the situation yesterday and ed s of Northview Village Nursing Home, located in the 2400 block of North Kingshighway.

“Our regional team worked through the night to ensure the approximate 170 residents were cared for and safely relocated,” Cox said. “The last resident left the facility just before 6 a.m. today. Today, our team is following up with the facilities to check in on the residents who were transferred.”

St. Louis firefighters were called to the facility Friday for a report of residents stuck in an elevator and when they arrived, found the residents being evacuated. First Alert 4 found they have been relocated to 14 facilities in the St. Louis Metro Area and Illinois.

Phyllis Gibson was in bed Saturday when she saw a report that the nursing home closed and residents were being moved out. Her brother Ned lived there and now she doesn’t know where he is because the facility never ed her.

“Never,” Gibson said. “Never got a message. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. This is sad.”

Gibson said she dropped her brother off back at Northview Village Friday afternoon after they spent the day together and no one said a word to her that hours later they would be shutting down.

“How would you feel,” Gibson said. “I’m just as human as you. How would you feel. I’m devastated. I don’t even know where to look. I don’t even know who to turn to.”

St. Louis County Public Timothy Weaks said he had three people under his care residing in the facility and learned about the abrupt closure via news reports.

“When you have a facility shutting down at 11:30 at night when it’s raining and you have no plan in place, finding placement for these folks is a task,” Weaks said.

Weaks said he’s now on high alert, concerned this could happen at other nursing homes in the area.

“As the guardian of over 700 individuals, I’m scared to death,” Weaks said.

Chassity Harlan worked at Northview Village for eight years, returning this past summer but as an agency employee.

“The owner said he doesn’t have it and he can’t pay them,” Harlan said. “He didn’t pay them. He still hasn’t paid them.”

Working for an agency, Harlan said she’s still getting paid but that’s not the case for many of her former coworkers.

“They were pissed,” Harlan said. “People said they were gonna get evicted. Christmas is coming. They worked the two weeks they were supposed to get paid for yesterday. They worked that week too so they’re not gonna get a check the next week either and it’s right before the holidays. They were devastated.”

While staff were left unpaid, the facility received a $1.9 million Paycheck Protection Loan in 2020, which was forgiven in August 2021, according to ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization which offers a database of entities receiving the funding.

Northview Village is one of seven residential care facilities in Missouri and Illinois operated by Healthcare ing Services LLC based in Brentwood. Calls to the company placed after business hours on Friday and Saturday were not answered.

Missouri Secretary of State business records show the owner of those homes is Makhlouf Suissa of Chicago. First Alert 4 attempted to Suissa at his home Saturday afternoon seeking answers, but a listed number was disconnected.

U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which ranks skilled care facilities in the nation, in its most recent report issued the facility a one-star rating, the lowest possible. Much of the low mark was based on staffing, which saw numbers far below national averages.

While the facility did not submit staff turnover numbers to CMS, the amount of time skilled staff spent with residents was nearly half the national average. The assessment showed nurse staff at Northview Village spend on average one hour and 57 minutes with residents while the national average is three hours and 47 minutes.

CMS assessments show the facility was fined 12 times in the past three years, totaling just over $142,000.

First Alert 4 did reach out to Northview Village for comment and we have not heard back.

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