FREEHOLD – The Monmouth County Freeholders are moving forward with privatizing the long struggling two county-operated nursing care facilities.
In a 4-1 vote conducted at a special meeting on Tuesday evening, the board offered its support on having county government step away from running both the John L. Montgomery Care Center, Freehold, and the Geraldine L. Thompson Care Center, Wall, which have been operating in one form or another, providing care for low income patients since at least the 1930s.
The lone dissenting vote was cast by Lillian Burry.
Freeholders have been long debating cutting loose the two facilities, as both facilities have been operating at a loss since at least 2007, continue to have vacancies and declining reimbursements from the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, county officials have said.
Some freeholders have cited losses at combined $45 million for both facilities since 2007.
The Thompson facility currently has 104 patients in its nursing care out of total 135 beds. The Montgomery location has 156 beds, and currently has 105 patients.
Montgomery also has a young adult unit for patients from ages 18-49 with 18 beds; at this point eight of those beds are occupied.
Thompson at present has 153 employees, with nine having 25 or more years of service. Montgomery has 168 current workers, 17 of whom have been with the facility for at least 25 years.
The freeholders’ action authorizes the county administrator, Teri O’Connor, and its attorney, Andrea Bazer, to put in place a request for proposals.
“There are a number of regulatory things that have to be done,” to move forward with this, said Laura Kirkpatrick, Monmouth County director of public information and tourism.
— By John Burton
