Burlingame Nursing Home Receives a 30-Day Extensionon Closing Date, Remains Open

A San Mateo County Superior Court judge yesterday approved a 30-day extension of Burlingame Nursing Home's closing date, allowing more time for the state to find a buyer for the bankrupt facility and relocate its 175 residents to other nursing homes, the San Jose Mercury News reports (Kwan, San Jose Mercury News, 3/6). The state has been operating the nursing home since the company managing it filed for bankruptcy in October. In mid-January, state officials said the facility would have to close in coming weeks because they had failed to find a buyer (California Healthline, 1/10). To date, San Mateo County is the only prospective buyer for Burlingame, which is the county's largest nursing home. However, the county faces a $70 million budget shortfall during the next fiscal year and may not be able to afford the $1.5 million in renovations needed to satisfy state safety codes or the costs of running the facility which has been losing $477,000 a month, the Mercury News reports. The facility's high staff-to-patient ratio coupled with its more than 100 vacant beds account for a large share of the losses, according to an attorney for the nursing home's transition-period manager. If the facility closes, residents will have 60 days to find a new nursing home, but few facilities in the area are accepting new Medi-Cal patients because the program reimburses the facilities at a lower rate than private insurance companies, the Mercury News reports (San Jose Mercury News, 3/6).