Its finances and facility in shambles, Red Wing nursing home will close in July

A Red Wing nursing home beset by financial problems and disrepair will close within weeks, despite a takeover by Minnesota regulators this winter that temporarily kept it open and maintained care for its 62 elderly and disabled residents.

The Minnesota Department of Health announced Thursday that Bay View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center will shut down in July, after 50 remaining residents are transferred to alternative care sites. A state takeover in December revealed that the nursing home owed millions in overdue payments to workers, suppliers and creditors. Regulators later discovered a level of disrepair that couldn't be overcome.

"The financial condition of Bay View combined with substantial physical plant repair needs have left us with no viable options," Maria King, director of the health regulation division for the Department of Health, said Thursday.

Residents and relatives learned of the closure Wednesday, along with 117 workers. A notice on Thursday by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development stated that the home will close around July 22, affecting nurses, administrators, laundry workers, therapists and others.

The loss of Bay View is disappointing on one hand to elder-care advocates, because it was unique in admitting patients with traumatic-brain injuries and other advanced-care needs. Minnesota also is running short of nursing home beds at the exact time when its aging population needs them.

On the other hand, Bay View had a below-average two-star federal Medicare rating for nursing home quality, and questions emerged about whether it really had the staffing expertise and equipment to handle that advanced level of resident care. It was one of 10 Minnesota nursing homes that met criteria this fall to be added to a federal list of facilities needing more supervision.

Lawmakers in 2023 had singled out Bay View in legislation for favorable payment rates through 2025 to help keep it open. But its owner, Sam Weinberg, argued that the relief didn't arrive in time to prevent the facility from running out of money and being placed under state control this winter through a court-ordered receivership.

Weinberg had taken over Bay View from a bankrupt operator in 2019, and later provided a refuge for residents displaced from a Cannon Falls, Minn., nursing home that closed after a roof collapse.

The state hired Pathway Health to take over temporary management of Bay View during the receivership. That administrator reported a range of unexpected neglect, including a defective boiler, flood damage, shuttered elevators and malfunctioning call systems.

The Health Department by statute is supposed to resolve receiverships within 18 months by returning nursing homes to original owners, finding new owners or shutting them down. The state becomes a caretaker but not an owner, and does not become financially responsible for repairs.

Since June 2022, Minnesota has remained in temporary control of the Pine Haven Care Center in Pine Island. Complicating that receivership is the fact that the nursing home's owner owes the federal government roughly $5.6 million for helping finance the purchase of the facility.