9 October 2023
CLOQUET Officials announced that Sunnyside Health Care will close by the end of the year.
CMH and Sunnyside Health Care CEO Rick Breuer said the decision to close Sunnyside was “very difficult” for himself, senior management and the Board of Directors to make.
“None of them wanted to do this, nobody here wanted to do this,” he said.
Officials formally announced the closure in a news release on CMH’s website Oct. 3.
Before coming to the conclusion to close the facility, the board discussed various options to preserve the facility by further shrinking it or converting it to assisted living. Ultimately, Breuer said closing Sunnyside is “what has to happen, but I wish it wasn’t our reality.”
He cited the reasoning for the closure as strictly coming down to “dollars and cents.”
“Long term care structurally in the state of Minnesota is really set up where it’s almost impossible to not lose money … Sunnyside has always lost between $1 (million) and $2 million dollars a year, and the overall organization has just absorbed it because it’s been very important from a mission standpoint for … everyone involved to support that operation,” Breuer said.
Due to the “deterioration” of health care over the past few years from the COVID-19 pandemic, Breuer said CMH’s ability to absorb that cost has weakened.
“Our loss basically doubled from what it had been,” he said. “We just said we can’t put the financial health of the overall organization at such risk as it would be if we just continued operations as normal.”
During the last legislative session, the state allocated one-time, short term funding for long term care when what facilities like Sunnyside truly need are ongoing rates to sustain them, Breuer said.
Federal, state and local grants that were available to health care organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic are no longer available, while the negative financial impact remains.
Breuer also cited staffing shortages as contributing to the decision to close. Many senior staff members retired early as a result of the pandemic and the hardships it inflicted, leaving gaps in the “institutional knowledge” of a newer staff.
While Sunnyside is licensed for 44 residents, they have been operating with 34 because of the staffing shortage.
“Since you are paid per resident, per day, if you are leaving 10 beds open on purpose, that is just devastating for the model you can’t break-even even if you’re full,” said Breuer.
It’s an issue long term health care facilities are battling everywhere, not just Sunnyside, he said, and that it’s a “worsening problem at the state level.”
“I hope someone is paying attention at the Capitol, and that the future funding isn’t just steps in the right direction, but that it’s bold action to really overhaul the funding of senior care,” he added.
Sunnyside staff have already begun meeting with their 34 residents and their families to assess what kind of care facility will best suit their needs as they prepare to leave Sunnyside.
About 30 staff members who work directly at Sunnyside will also be impacted. Like their residents, CMH will be helping these employees find work elsewhere (if they choose to stay in health care) by providing an on-site job fair featuring other area care facilities.
Adding to the sadness and difficulty of the closure, Breuer noted that just a few years ago plans to build a new Sunnyside facility off of the south side of the hospital were in early stages. They ultimately fell through because of the pandemic.
“Our staff and our residents knew that we were talking about a new facility just a few years ago, and now there is no facility,” he said.
Even though there are still lingering ideas about how the vacant Sunnyside space could be used, Breuer said out of respect for the Sunnyside residents and staff, he and the board are not currently discussing what that area of the hospital will be used for after the closure.
“This is still their home … it is Sunnyside and Sunnyside only until the doors close,” he said.
Breuer noted that Sunnyside has made a point over its years in operation to build intergenerational connections between its residents and the community, such as connections with Churchill Elementary students, National Honor Society students and the community band who would all visit residents, and all of which are connections that Breuer said “will be very hard to lose.”
For Breuer, the decision to close Sunnyside was emotional.
“You see the people you’ve impacted. There are community members who have volunteered here, who have had loved ones here, retired employees and they all get it, they’re all just sad,” he said.
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