MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The recent sale of four state-run health care facilities to the Marx Development Group raised many questions and some of those are being answered.
Majestic Care, an affiliate of Marx Development, will be operating the nursing homes. Majestic Care CEO Paul Pruitt said their plans are still in the development stage but they don’t plan to move any of the residents from their current home locations.
“First and foremost the residents that live in those facilities will stay in the facilities,” Pruitt said during a Tuesday appearance on MetroNews “Talkline.” “They will also stay on the journey; the governor announced we’re looking to do some rebuilds, so they follow through our process.”
Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced the $60 million deal last week. Marx has purchased the Lakin, Manchin, Hopemont and Jackie Withrow long-term care homes. Morrisey said it would take at least $100 million in state money to get he homes where they need to be.
Pruitt said the employees that currently manage the patients in the more than 500 beds across the state included in the sale aren’t going anywhere either. The employees will have to complete an application as an administrative requirement and all will have their jobs if they elect to stay.
“They just have to fill out the application because we have to have that on file legally,” Pruitt said. “They don’t have to go through an interview process; they don’t have to go through multiple steps. They’ll work with our HR department to get the paperwork done, and they will continue.”
Pruitt said they also plan to take a hard look at costs across the four-hospital network. The company will use their scale and existing vendors to get the best prices operationally and they’ll conduct a facilities audit to determine where savings can be identified within their brick-and-mortar infrastructure.
“We’re going to bring a lot of our different vendors we use and make sure we’re getting the best pricing and maximizing those pieces,” Pruitt said. “We’re going to look at the efficiency of the buildings, and if you look at some of the buildings, the efficiency just isn’t there.”
One of the concerns voiced by community members and lawmakers has been their ability to take care of some of the most difficult patients. Pruitt said they have a proven care model they will bring to West Virginia to train employees on and integrate into the clinical setting.
“We have a couple facilities in our Indiana market that take care of a lot of behavioral residents, and we do it very well.” Pruitt said. “But, it only gets done very well if you have the right program.”
The number and type of new facilities to be constructed remain under evaluation. Pruitt said they weren’t sure if the number of facilities required would be three, four, or five, and it is all under review. Many priorities of the new facilities will be identified as Majestic takes over and has an opportunity to evaluate current processes.
“We’re looking at where different pieces of property are; we’re starting to look at what makes the most sense in terms of facility design,” Pruitt said. “Obviously, we need to meet facility requirements, but we want to make sure we design these buildings to meet the residents’ needs.”
The deal becomes final next month with Majestic set to take over day-to-day operations this fall.