Darby's St. Francis Country House included in sale ...

By Patti Mengers
Delaware County Daily Times
July 2, 2014

http://www.delcotimes.com/social-affairs/20140701/darbys-st-francis-country-house-included-in-sale-of-archdiocesan-facilities-to-center-mangement-group

St. Francis Country House in Darby was among seven Archdiocese of Philadelphia facilities sold to Center Management Group of Flushing, N.Y.

Darby's St. Francis Country House included in sale of archdiocesan facilities to Center Mangement Group

In a continuing effort to reduce the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s financial woes, archdiocesan officials announced Tuesday they have entered into an agreement to sell one assisted living facility and six nursing homes owned by Catholic Health Care Services, including St. Francis Country House in Darby.

Center Management Group, a 15-year-old secular health care management company based in Flushing, N.Y., is expected to purchase the nursing care facilities for $145 million. The net proceeds will be applied to lessen millions of dollars in underfunded liabilities the archdiocese has, including the priests’ pension plan, the lay employees’ retirement plan, the self-insurance reserve and the trust and loan fund .

The sale is expected to be closed by the end of the calendar year, said Kenneth Gavin, communications director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

“Until the closing occurs the nursing homes will still be run by Catholic Health Care Services,” Gavin said.

The hundreds of residents and the 1,100 full-time and 950 part-time employees at the seven facilities were informed about the new owner Tuesday as they changed shifts. Representatives from Center Management Group will be meeting with employees and with residents and their families at each of the facilities within the next few weeks to answer questions, Gavin said.

St. Francis Country House currently has 374 employees and is fully-occupied with 273 residents.

“We’ve obtained from Center Management a guarantee that the current residents will be retained at the facilities regardless of payer status and all current employees at (sale) closing will be retained at their base pay with benefits,” Gavin said. “Family members choose very specifically to have loved ones reside in a facility because it is Catholic. The stewardship agreement we have entered into with Center Management specifies that the Catholic identity be retained.”

The facilities are expected to retain their Catholic names and symbols, their chapels where weekday and Sunday Masses are to be celebrated and their chaplains, who will still render pastoral care such as counseling and spiritual comfort, Gavin said. He noted that advisory boards consisting of three Catholics selected by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput and two Catholics proposed by Center Management officials and approved by Chaput will ensure Catholic identity is maintained at the nursing care facilities.

“In the future if questions arise that the facilities are not being operated in a manner consistent with Catholic identity then the archbishop will have a right to revoke Catholic identity from those facilities,” Gavin said.

Included among the 15 nursing homes in New York and New Jersey currently owned by Center Management Group are two that were once part of the St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers of New York system that continue to be operated in a Catholic manner, according to a press release from the archdiocese.

“Our collaborative and careful deliberations over the past months have allowed us to finalize a transaction that will provide for the seamless continuation of the seven skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, as well as adult medical day care programs and continuing care retirement communities that have been optimally operated and maintained by Catholic Health Care Services,” Center Management Group Chief Executive Officer Charles-Edouard Gros said.

St. Francis Country House was founded as a convalescent home in 1913 by the Rev. Francis X. Wastl on a 350-acre William Penn land grant made to Darby Quaker John Blunston and also once owned by Colonial botanist John Bartram. Now occupying five acres, St. Francis Country House was run by the Sisters of Bon Secours from 1920 to 1987.

“I think it is a shame that the Church finds itself in such dire straits and had to sell off one of their greatest achievements ever,” said Hugh Sweeney of Collingdale whose mother, Dolores Sweeney, has been a St. Francis Country House resident for six years.

Sweeney said he is happy that the nurses and nursing assistants who care for his 92-year-old mother will be able to remain at St. Francis under the new owner. He noted that St. Francis chaplain, the Rev. Edward J. Kennedy, has helped his mother make the adjustment to nursing home life.

“I have come to know them as friends and have complete trust in them. We will just have to wait and see as things unfold with time,” Sweeney said.

Other Catholic nursing care facilities expected to be sold to Center Management Group by the end of the year include St. Mary Manor in Montgomery County, Villa St. Martha and St. Martha Manor, both in Chester County and Immaculate Mary Home, St. Monica Manor and St. John Neumann Home, all in Philadelphia.

In a prepared statement, Chaput said Center Management Group was chosen from nearly 30 initial bidders and that his major focus was selecting a company that would “provide the highest possible quality of health care in a manner consistent with Catholic identity and moral teaching.”

“I did not arrive at this decision lightly. It came only after a great deal of consultation, discussion and prayer. Center Management Group has a great deal of experience in the operation of nursing homes, and they’ve guaranteed the conditions I set forth some time ago in terms of fair treatment of current employees and residents,” Chaput said.

According to the press release, archdiocesan nursing home employees will become employees of Center Management Group at their rate of pay current at the time of sale closing “with reasonable protection packages if the employee is not retained in the first year”.

Their health benefits will come under Center Management Group’s health care plans. Their current employee eligibility, accrual and vesting for benefit plans, vacation and sick time will be carried over along with any unused sick, holiday, vacation and personal time that has been earned but not used prior to closing of the sale.

Residents living in the facilities as of the closing sale date will be retained regardless of their Medicare, Medicaid, private or commercial payer status, according to the agreement.

In a transaction that was completed in May, archdiocesan officials outsourced the management of its 13 Catholic cemeteries as part of a cost-cutting maneuver. Last September, archdiocesan officials entered into the outsourced management agreement and 60-year lease with the second largest cemetery operator in the nation, StoneMor Partners, headquartered in Levittown, Bucks County. It provided an initial lease payment of $53 million to the archdiocese with future lease payments totaling $36 million.

The Delaware County Catholic cemeteries the company now manages include St. Michael’s Cemetery in Chester, SS Peter and Paul Cemetery in Marple, Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon and Immaculate Heart of Mary Cemetery in Upper Chichester. StoneMor’s assets include 277 cemeteries and 92 funeral homes in 27 states and Puerto Rico.

Archdiocesan officials have also reduced the archdiocese’s operating deficit from $17.9 million to $4.9 million in the last two years through the sale of the archbishop’s Philadelphia mansion and a retired priests’ retreat in Ventnor, NJ., as well as through a 25 percent reduction in the archdiocesan pastoral center workforce.

Gavin said the archdiocese’s financial problems are not the result of legal costs related to clerical sexual abuse cases or the embezzlement of more than $900,000 by former chief financial officer Anita Guzzardi who pled guilty in 2012.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with that. The current problems were growing for decades because the archdiocese was trying to sustain parishes, ministries and schools that were unable to sustain themselves,” Gavin said.