Protest Against Closure of Care Homes Set for this Afternoon

Pacific Rehabilitation and Wellness Center webpage

Pacific Rehabilitation and Wellness Center webpage screenshot

Press release: (And here’s a link you will learn a great deal from—a story in the North Coast Journal by Linda Stansberry about the conditions in the care homes.)

Community members will gather on Thursday to protest the closure of Pacific Rehabilitation & Wellness Center, the first of three Brius-owned care homes slated for closure in Humboldt County. Brius Healthcare Services is controlled by LA-based multi-millionaire Shlomo Rechnitz.

“The closure of Pacific Care Home, and others currently on the chopping block, will be catastrophic for individual patients, and our larger community. These patient transfers will tear families apart and put our most vulnerable citizens at risk of trauma and death. The loss of these facilities will impact our already over-taxed hospitals, first responders, social workers, and families – all of which negatively impact quality of life for ALL residents of Humboldt,” commented Austin Allison, candidate for Eureka City Council, member of the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), and one of the organizers of this event.

Another organizer and NUHW member, Allen McClosky, says “There is no excuse for these closures. These facilities are owned by multi-millionaire Shlomo Rechnitz and their closures are a result of valuing profits over people and flagrant disregard for human life. These closures will traumatize and kill some of our most vulnerable residents.

Interested parties can meet at Pacific Rehabilitation & Wellness Center (2211 Harrison Avenue, Eureka) this Thursday, October 13th, between 4:30 and 6:00 to demonstrate solidarity with the residents and family members who will be directly affected by these closures. Attendees are encouraged to bring signs.

More information is available at tinyurl.com/pacific-closure and briuswatch.org.

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Henchman Of Justice
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Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago

“The loss of these facilities will impact our already over-taxed hospitals, first responders, social workers, and families – all of which negatively impact quality of life for ALL residents of Humboldt,…..”

(This is a misleading statement to suggest that “ALL” residents of Humboldt will be impacted)

“Another organizer and NUHW member, Allen McClosky, says “There is no excuse for these closures. These facilities are owned by multi-millionaire Shlomo Rechnitz and their closures are a result of valuing profits over people and flagrant disregard for human life.”

(Progressive liberals tend to innaugurate their newbie candidates with a protest issue to begin the face pulling campaigning)

(Even progressive liberals hide the fact that immigrants are greedy too)

(If progressive liberals want to get into the biz of private sector healthcare, then buy out the millionaire, open up the facility under new progressive liberal ownership and solve this issue forever)

It is sad for many (not All), but instead of protesting, a donation drive……”time to buy out what is bitched about”. 😆

If it ain’t demanding some thing or service for free or less from gubbamint, it is also anyone who has money……when money can be vicariously associated to charge that a person is greedy and flagrantly disregarding human life…..a statement that can be made against the poor too, but once any money gets involved that other people live off of, then the real greed shows by those claiming what is not theirs “is theirs”…..convoluted mindsets for sure.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
7 years ago

We need eldercare facilities. However, to the owner it’s a business. If you don’t like the way he is running them, buy him out and run them yourself. You could become quite wealthy also.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
7 years ago

Okay, I was being a little too facetious. My point would be that; on the surface, all businesses seem like they should be making a fortune, but like the old Indian saying goes, “walk a mile in their moccasins”. Dealing with all of the certifications, licenses, insurance, and employees hiring and firing, inspectors audits, maintenance, and I could fill the page with hoops that businesses have to jump though, it ends up not being as profitable as it seems.

I’m sure that the average person could not even run a care home. If they are really doing that bad of a job, and making all that much money, why isn’t there other care home providers stepping forward. There is certainly a need.

My heart goes out to the old folks being shipped around, it’s just plain not fair, but such is life. Wasn’t Obama supposed to take care of all this?

the misadventures of bunjee
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the misadventures of bunjee
7 years ago

To be fair, Shlomo has about zero experience running a care home too. He’s a former medical supply salesman. He picked all the CA homes up at bankruptcy auctions. The closures are due to numerous facilities losing their certifications for various and widespread violations, and thus could no longer bill Medi-Cal and Medicare. He made a ton of money all right. He also is being investigated for barely spending a penny on important things like wages and maintenance. IMHO he ran a care home ponzi scheme at worst. Would you still support his right to make a buck at the expense of elder care? Seems rather shallow and neglectful if you ask me. Someday, this could be you or me slowly dying from bedsores and ailments because there’s no one covering the night shift because they didn’t feel like paying for some extra help. Also, why close it down completely when you can buy low and sell high?

Suzi
Guest
Suzi
7 years ago

The owner has a monopoly in Humboldt County and also owns 1 in every 14 skilled nursing home beds in California. He also owns the medical supply company where the homes bought their supplies, plus has a connection to Rockport which is a “management” company…that’s how he’s made his millions

smh
Guest
smh
7 years ago

Ernie, that is a very glib response to the families of the people faced with these agonizing choices.

Anon Forrest
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Anon Forrest
7 years ago

From what I heard on the radio News, the owner doesn’t want to sell the business; just close it down…it sits on valuable real-estate, let’s not overlook that point. af

Veterans friend
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Veterans friend
7 years ago

NO ONE should BECOME WEALTHY by profiting from the suffering of elderly & infirm. I believe that is the very definition of sin.

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago

Kinda, but in business, ya gotta profit, but “profit gouging” is what is evil…..and servicing the neediest (if you will terminologically) is philanthropically and humanly the kindest and most compassionate…..that is true also of civic involvements, donating personal time or money (sparetime too counts) to worthy causes.

HOJ feels as if EB was sincere in a non-greedy way…..that maybe people in the private sector could do it better and for less profit mark ups……and lots of people need servicing, so the cumultive total of minimal profit to operate per patient adds up to quite a bit deservedly so in order to stay in business and reward both patients and staff justifiably, but reasonably in order to maintain longterm, ongoing and expandible services opportunities???

Afterall, is it better to “service patients in a doable, less costly way with lower profits run by more compassionte folks” or have nothing at all unless finagling taxpayers is the easy answer as a means and way outta the debacle.

tugboat
Guest
7 years ago

The real motive of liberals have nothing to do with the welfare of other people, instead they have two related goals – to establish themselves as morally and intellectually superior to the rather distasteful population of common people and to gather as much power as possible to tell those distasteful common people how they must live their lives. I do not believe their B.S for one minute.

Geez
Guest
Geez
7 years ago
Reply to  tugboat

And I really hate when someone lumps a group of people together like that.
“Liberals” and “right wingers” are terms being used to lump, like their a cult or something.
Guess what most people aren’t defined by either entirely; in fact one of the downfalls of our political system and society is this type of lumping. It does not allow for individual independent thinking.
Example
Oh you’re a liberal, how can you be in favor of people owning guns?
Oh you’re a right winger, how can you believe in a woman’s right to abortion?

This is what people say for real so if you do feel different you are basically shamed by your political peers.

How can we have intelligent debates that help people to (gasp) think critically on their own about different sides to issues.
This pigeon holing is ruining so much, attack style language is ridiculous. You are just playing into the reality TV show style of relating to others and having that black/white attitude on issues does nothing to help us all move forward.
Am sorry for you for whatever happened to you to make you so angry towards your fellow people and so stuck in your beliefs that you are straight up mean. There’s no way to debate with you because of this so why keep trying? Spewing hate is such a waste of time and space in the comment section!
Especially in regards to an article on elder care. Maybe you wanna die with layers of crapped in diapers and bedsores while not being fed or washed,but I dont. And I doubt the journal did a front page article about the woman who died that way for someone to make money on, this is a real issue.

A funny thing I saw said this,
“If president obama came out in favor of oxygen, would republicans suffocate themselves?” Think about it.

tugboat
Guest
7 years ago
Reply to  Geez

The term liberal is just a word, and it is used to explain the mind set of people that condemn actions of others and shaming others without a solution of their own other than using other peoples money and energy to solve a problem.
If you care about this so much , open up your own wallet and pay for it yourself.
You can use any word you like if you dont like the liberal name tag.

hmm
Guest
hmm
7 years ago

How can you protest the closure of a private business? They should protest themselves for not fighting to put elder care in the hands of the community instead of corporations.