Excerpts from a complaint summary on a fall by a Brooke Nursing Center resident Oct. 31, 2004. Visit the Photo Place

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Home has history of problems

Complaints prompt legislators to speed push to replace Brooke Nursing Center in Stafford, but will new facility arrive in time?

By ELLEN BILTZ

Date published: 8/13/2006

Sherry Robinson's mother couldn't take care of herself anymore. As much as Robinson said she didn't want to do it, last year she moved her mom into Brooke Nursing Center.

"The only reason I put her there is because it was close to home," said Robinson, a Stafford County resident. "But it was awful, absolutely awful. It was like my mom was a person there in bed waiting to die."

Robinson wasn't the only one to complain about the treatment of a family member at the nursing home in rural eastern Stafford.

According to the Virginia Department of Health, from 2003 to 2005 there were eight written complaints, four of which were substantiated.

Problems and complaints at Brooke led to passage of emergency state legislation this year, allowing a proposal to replace and expand the Brooke center at another location in Stafford.

The typical process for a new nursing home includes a request for proposals by the health commissioner, but the legislation bypassed that requirement in this case.

Del. Mark Cole, a Spotsylvania County Republican who represents part of Stafford, said he proposed the emergency legislation because he believes Brooke should be replaced and the number of beds increased from 34 to 90.

"The facility is too small and needs to be upgraded," he said recently. "I just put the legislation in to jump-start the process."

The proposal for a nursing home to replace Brooke was made by Smith/Packett Med-Com Inc. on behalf of Stafford Health Investors LLC and was approved in June by a regional health advisory agency.

The investors group would buy Brooke's 34 beds and add another 56 at a proposed site near Celebrate Virginia North off U.S. 17 in southern Stafford. The county would require rezoning for a nursing home in that area, and public hearings on the issue could be held in the next few months.

Along with finding a place for the new building, S/P and SHI are waiting for approval from the state Health Department and the health commissioner, which are expected before December.

If the nursing home gets the go-ahead, they say it will take about two years to open.

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Date published: 8/13/2006